Fermented Milk Consumption and Common Infections in Children Attending Day-care Centers. A Randomized Trial.

Objectives: This multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial investigated the effect of a fermented milk product containing the Lactobacillus casei CNCM I-1518 strain, on respiratory and gastro-intestinal common infectious diseases (CIDs) in children attending day-care centers in Russia. Methods: Children aged 3-6 years received 100 g of a fermented milk product (n = 300) or a control product (n = 299) twice-daily for 3 months, followed by a 1-month observation period. The primary outcome was the incidence of CIDs during the product consumption period. Results: There was no significant difference in the incidence of CIDs between the groups (N = 98 with fermented milk product vs. N = 93 with control product). The overall number of CIDs (and no severe cases at all) in both study groups and in all twelve centers, however, was unexpectedly low resulting in underpowering of the study. No differences were found between the groups in the duration or severity of disease, duration of sick leave from day-care centers, parental missed working days, or in quality of life dimensions on the PedsQL questionnaire (p > 0.05). However, there was a significantly lower incidence of the most frequently observed CID, rhinopharyngitis, in children consuming the fermented milk product compared to those consuming the control product (N = 81 vs. N = 100; relative risk RR [95% CI] = 0.82 [0.69; 0.96]; p = 0.017) when considering the entire study period. Conclusion: Although no other significant differences were shown between the fermented milk and control product groups in this study, lower incidence of rhinopharyngitis may indicate a beneficial effect of this fermented milk product. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 License, where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially. http://ift.tt/OBJ4xP (C) 2016 by European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology,

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