Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Effect of Vitamin A Supplementation on Maternal Morbidity During Pregnancy and Postpartum Among HIV-Infected Women

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of prenatal and postnatal vitamin A supplementation of HIV‐infected women

“…This systematic review shows prenatal vitamin A supplementation of HIV-infected women to significantly improve birth weight, consistent with findings of previous observational studies [7]. Overall, there was no significant effect of vitamin A supplementation on the frequency of preterm deliveries; although 1 trial that compared vitamin A supplementation to placebo in 728 pregnant women [12,13] suggests significant reductions in the frequency of preterm birth (RR 0.64; 95% CI, 0.44-0.94). The review did not show a statistically significant effect of vitamin A supplementation of HIV-infected women on the incidence of stillbirths, infant mortality, and maternal mortality.…”

“…We included a total of 5 trials that enrolled a total of 7528 women [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. There were 4 trials of prenatal vitamin A supplementation that enrolled a total of 3033 HIV-infected pregnant women, and 1 trial of postnatal vitamin A supplementation that enrolled 4495 HIV-infected postnatal women.…”

Micronutrients: current issues for HIV care providers

“…However, women in the vitamin A group were significantly less likely to have a pre-term delivery than women in the placebo group (11.4 versus 17.4%; P ¼ 0.03). Among a subset of 312 women from this clinical trial, there was no effect of vitamin A supplementation on HIV-or pregnancy-related symptoms during the pre-or post-natal periods [69], or on pre-partum weight gain among these women [70]. However, there was a benefit of vitamin A supplementation on maintenance of post-partum weight, particularly among women with low serum retinol levels or with CD4þ cell counts < 200 Â 10 6 cells/l at baseline [70].…”

Update: Effects of Antioxidant and Non-Antioxidant Vitamin Supplementation on Immune Function

“…Findings from several prospective studies indicate that low plasma concentrations of carotenoids may predict disease progression and contribute to increased mortality, while higher intakes from diet or supplements may reduce morbidity and enhance survival. [141][142][143][144] However, a number of RCTs have included preformed vitamin A in the supplementation regimen, [145][146][147][148][149] and it is not possible to attribute the effects to carotenoids alone. In the RCT of adults with advanced AIDS, 136 multivariate analyses suggested that survival was significantly improved in those with higher serum ␤-carotene concentrations at baseline irrespective of treatment group.…”