Abstract
BackgroundThe beneficial effect of antenatal multiple micronutrients supplementation on infant birth outcomes has been proposed by previous meta-analyses. However, their benefits on postnatal health of children have not been summarized. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted to evaluate the effect of maternal multimicronutrient supplementation on postnatal growth of children under 5 years of age.MethodsWe searched both published and ongoing trials through the PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL (OVID platform), Web of Science, BIOSIS Previews, Chinese Science Citation Database, Scopus, ProQuest, ClinicalTrials.gov, Chinese Biomedical Database, and WANFANG database for randomized controlled trials. Reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews were also reviewed for eligible studies. Standard mean difference (SMD) was employed as the index for continuous variables by using fixed effects models. Trend analysis by visual inspection was applied to evaluate the change of mean difference of weight and height between the groups over time.ResultsNine trials (12 titles) from nine different countries were retrieved for analysis. Pooled results showed that antenatal multimicronutrient supplementation increased child head circumference (SMD = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.00–0.15) compared with supplementation with two micronutrient or less. No evidence was found for the benefits of antenatal multimicronutrient supplementation on weight (P = 0.11), height (P = 0.66), weight-for-age z scores (WAZ) (P = 0.34), height-for-age z scores (HAZ) (P = 0.81) and weight-for-height z scores (WHZ) (P = 0.22). A positive effect was found on chest circumference based on two included studies.ConclusionsAntenatal multimicronutrient supplementation has a significant positive effect on head circumference of children under 5 years. No impact of the supplementation was found on weight, height, WAZ, HAZ and WHZ.
Highlights
Maternal micronutrients deficiency during pregnancy is an outstanding public health issue worldwide
We identified two ongoing trials registered in ClinicalTrial.gov [55,56]
The results indicated that antenatal multimicronutrient supplementation had a significant positive effect on head circumference of children under 5 years of age
Summary
Maternal micronutrients deficiency during pregnancy is an outstanding public health issue worldwide. Due to the increased nutritional requirement, pregnant women are vulnerable to micronutrients deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency is another important issue, especially in middle and lowincome countries. According to the estimation by WHO, 122 countries were affected by Vitamin A deficiency during the period between 1995 and 2005 [2]. In Belgian, it was reported that 74.1% of pregnant women were vitamin D deficiency [3]. The beneficial effect of antenatal multiple micronutrients supplementation on infant birth outcomes has been proposed by previous meta-analyses. Their benefits on postnatal health of children have not been summarized. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted to evaluate the effect of maternal multimicronutrient supplementation on postnatal growth of children under 5 years of age
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