Understanding why children with diarrhea often don't receive the right treatment.
Official title: What Drives Poor Care for Child Diarrhea?: A Standardized Patient Experiment
Funded at Rand Corporation · NIH-10649723 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This study looks at why doctors in low- and middle-income countries sometimes don’t give children with diarrhea the lifesaving treatment of oral rehydration salts, even though it works well, and it aims to find out what influences their choices so we can help improve care for these kids.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Rand Corporation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Santa Monica, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2020 |
| Project end | June 30, 2025 |
| Funding year | 2023 |
| Award (this year) | $383,970 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DK126049-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-10649723 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates for this research are children aged 0-11 years who are experiencing diarrhea and their caregivers in low- and middle-income countries.
✕Less likely to help
Patients who are not experiencing diarrhea or are outside the age range of 0-11 years may not benefit from this research.
What this research studies
This research investigates the reasons why private healthcare providers in low- and middle-income countries often fail to prescribe oral rehydration salts (ORS) for children suffering from diarrhea, despite its effectiveness in preventing deaths. By using standardized patients who pose as caregivers, the study aims to uncover the factors influencing healthcare providers' decisions, including patient preferences for alternatives like antibiotics. The findings will help inform strategies to improve the quality of care for children with diarrhea in these regions.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this research could lead to improved treatment protocols that ensure children receive the necessary care to prevent diarrhea-related deaths.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research has shown that understanding provider behavior and patient preferences can lead to significant improvements in healthcare delivery, suggesting that this approach may yield valuable insights.
Where this research is happening
-
Rand Corporation
Santa Monica, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Wagner, Zachary — Rand Corporation
- Study coordinator: Wagner, Zachary
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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PediCODE: A Biorepository and Consortium for CoDE - Congenital Diarrhea and Enteropathy
A nationwide effort to collect clinical data and patient-derived samples to uncover the genetic causes of congenital diarrhea and enteropathy and to build a resource that helps researchers study these diseases.
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PediCODE Consortium and Biobank for Congenital Diarrhea and Enteropathy
Creating a multi-center team and biobank to find genetic causes of congenital diarrhea and enteropathy in children and collect samples that can help future research.
-
Mobile health tool to guide dehydration care for acute diarrhea across all ages
A mobile app uses AI to help people of all ages determine dehydration risk during acute diarrhea and guide rehydration decisions.
-
Understanding how certain gut bacteria cause diarrhea in children and how it works in the gut lining
This project looks at how infections from ETEC and EPEC bacteria cause diarrhea, especially in children, and uses a mouse model and human-derived gut cell systems to uncover the underlying mechanisms.
-
Targeting a gut transporter to help relieve constipation in CF and older adults
Aimed at helping people with cystic fibrosis and older adults who have chronic constipation by studying a gut transporter to improve intestinal fluid balance.
-
Targeting gut drug processing to prevent diarrhea from mycophenolate
This project tests whether using natural gut-acting compounds to boost a specific drug-clearing pathway in the lower intestine can reduce diarrhea caused by the transplant drug mycophenolate in people who take it.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.