Dehydration due to acute gastroenteritis is one of the leading causes of mortality in children worldwide.The World Health Organization (WHO) scale, the Gorelick scale, and the Clinical Dehydration Scale (CDS) were created to estimate percentage dehydration in children with gastroenteritis based on clinical signs. Of these, only the CDS has been prospectively validated against a valid gold standard, though never in low- and middleincome countries.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether these clinical scales can accurately assess dehydration status in children when performed by nurses or general physicians in a low-income country.