Analysis of factors influencing the overall effect of racecadotril on childhood acute diarrhea. Results from a real-world and post-authorization surveillance study in Venezuela

Drug efficacy might differ from clinical trial results when performed in clinical daily conditions. Therefore, it is mandatory to conduct trials about effectiveness to improve external validity. This post-authorization, open-label, noncontrolled, prospective, multicenter, observational, and naturalistic trial was designed to search for factors influencing the racecadotril overall effect on childhood acute watery diarrhea in a real-world setting of Venezuela. There were 3,873 children with acute watery diarrhea treated with racecadotril, an enkephalin breakdown blocker plus oral rehydration therapy by 97 pediatricians. Evaluations were carried out daily until emission of two consecutive formed stools or absence of watery bowel movements for 24 hours. The primary end-point was time-to-relief, defined as the time from first racecadotril dose to the last watery bowel movement time. Age, gender, nursing type, nursing status during diarrhea, diarrhea severity, and co-medication were considered as factors in the statistical analysis. The primary end-point was evaluated by factors using UNIANOVA, and post-hoc tests were done. A multiple regression analysis was carried out to identify factors affecting drug performance, racecadotril effectiveness and tolerability overall assessment was searched by physicians and patients, and inter-observer agreement was evaluated by kappa statistics. The mean time-to-relief was 18.5 ± 12.5 hours [95% confidence interval 17.9–19.0] and the diarrhea severity was the only variable with significant and independent weight on racecadotril effectiveness explaining 23% of time-to-relief variance, but even in severe diarrhea cases this time was less than 24 hours. High agreement about satisfactory perception on effectiveness and tolerability was reached among physicians and patients. In conclusion, the racecadotril overall effect, evaluated in a real-world setting of Venezuela, was in agreement with results of some earlier controlled trials. It was only influenced by severity of diarrhea episode, as well as being considered an effective and well tolerated treatment by physicians and patients.