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Vitamin A supplementation for the prevention of morbidity and mortality in infants one to six months of age
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Vitamin A supplementation for the prevention of morbidity and mortality in infants one to six months of age

Aamer Imdad, Zunirah Ahmed and Zulfiqar A Bhutta
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, Vol.2016(9), pp.CD007480-CD007480
09/28/2016
DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007480.pub3
PMCID: PMC6457829
PMID: 27681486
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007480.pub3View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Vitamin A supplementation for infants one to six months of age for preventing death and illnesses Background Vitamin A deficiency is a significant public health problem in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Vitamin A supplementation given to children between the ages of six months and five years reduces deaths in these settings. This review focused on babies one to six months of age. Review question Does vitamin A supplementation in babies one to six months of age have any beneficial or harmful effects? Study characteristics The review authors searched the medical literature to identify relevant studies that compared the effect of vitamin A supplementation versus control on death, illnesses, and side effects in randomly selected infants aged one to six months. The literature is current to 5 March 2016. The search identified 12 studies that involved 24,846 infants. Most of the studies were well conducted and included children from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Key results The results of the studies provided no convincing evidence that vitamin A supplementation reduces death or illness in infants one to six months of age (quality of evidence: moderate). Supplementation had no beneficial effects to reduce death or illness due to diarrhoea or pneumonia. Similarly, vitamin A supplementation did not reduce the proportion of children with vitamin A deficiency based on their blood levels of vitamin A (quality of evidence: moderate). Infants who were given vitamin A had an increased risk of development of bulging of soft spot at the top of the head (called bulging fontanelle) and quality of evidence for this side effect was high. However, this adverse effect did not increase subsequent risk of death or fits. In summary, vitamin A supplementation in infants one to six months of age did not reduce death or illness; however, it increased the risk of bulging fontanelle.
 Child health Complementary & alternative medicine Neonatal care Nutrition and Metabolism in the High‐Risk Neonate

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