Abstract
PROSPERO registration numbers CRD42018105196 and CRD42018088868.
Highlights
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA), such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA), are important structural components of the human brain that mainly accumulate during the third trimester of pregnancy and early infancy [1,2,3]
Previous systematic reviews of randomised controlled trial (RCT) may have failed to detect a difference in cognition because they mainly focused on early measures of cognition, such as Bayley Scales of Infant Development
We found no evidence that LCPUFA-supplemented infant formula improved long-term cognition among children born at term or preterm
Summary
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA), such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA), are important structural components of the human brain that mainly accumulate during the third trimester of pregnancy and early infancy [1,2,3]. Human breast milk contains DHA, AA, and their fatty acid precursors [4] but, historically, infant formula contained only the precursors alpha linoleic acid and linoleic acid, which infants, especially those born preterm, may not be able to effectively synthesise into DHA and AA [5]. There is no clear evidence from published randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that LCPUFA-supplemented infant formula improves cognition compared with unsupplemented formula milk [5, 10]. Previous systematic reviews of RCTs may have failed to detect a difference in cognition because they mainly focused on early measures of cognition, such as Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Follow-up later in childhood, using more reliable measures of cognitive function such as Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores, might be more likely to detect an existing effect of LCPUFA-supplementation
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