Affiliation:
1. Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract
Background:
In pregnancy, maternal vitamin D deficiency has been associated with
adverse birth outcomes worldwide and has become a major public health concern. However, the
linkage between maternal prenatal vitamin D status and post-natal linear growth, particularly in
infancy, is inconclusive and ambiguous.
Objective:
This study aims to systematically identify, appraise, and synthesize available evidence
regarding the effect of maternal vitamin D supplementation on infants’ linear growth at one year.
Methods:
A systematic electronic search of Medline and Embase databases was undertaken from
the OVID platform. The risk of bias in the selected studies was assessed using the risk of bias
(RoB) tool introduced and recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration.
Results:
A quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) was determined using RevMan. After screening,
only two studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, comprising a total of 93 infants: (296 from
mothers receiving vitamin D and 297 from mothers receiving placebo). One RCT found a 0.8 cm
gain in length whereas the second RCT found infants to be 0.23 cm shorter compared to their
placebo counterparts. A meta-analysis also could not detect a significant difference in length.
However, the pooled result favored infants (0.19 cm taller) born to mothers receiving prenatal
vitamin D.
Conclusion:
The quality of overall evidence for the outcome ‘infant length at 1 year’-as
assessed using the GRADE approach was low. Maternal high-dose vitamin D supplementation
during pregnancy increases linear growth in infants at 12 months of age, but, this increase is very
small and not statistically significant.
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Nutrition and Dietetics,Food Science
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