Research paper
Effects of nutrition interventions during pregnancy on low birth weight: an overview of systematic reviews
Study answer
What this study found
Overall, improving women’s nutritional status during pregnancy was associated with lower risk of low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age birth, and preterm birth, with the strongest and most consistent support for multiple micronutrient supplementation and preventive antimalarial drugs. Specific effects varied by intervention: vitamin A added to iron plus folate reduced low birth weight by 33%, high-dose calcium (≥1 g/day) reduced preterm birth by 24%, multiple micronutrients reduced low birth weight by 11-14% and SGA by 10-17%, zinc in adolescent pregnancy reduced low birth weight by…
- Study & population
- Overview of systematic reviews of randomized, quasi-randomized, and cluster-randomized trials in pregnant women, mostly with singleton pregnancies, from low-, middle-, and high-income settings.
- Intervention
- Across the underlying reviews, active regimens included single vitamins and minerals (vitamin A, C, E, folic acid, calcium, iron, iodine, magnesium, zinc), multiple micronutrients, balanced energy/protein supplements, and marine oil or long-chain n-3 fatty acid supplementation during pregnancy.
- Key limitation
- Many interventions were supported by only a small number of trials, and the evidence varied widely in dose, formulation, population risk, and setting.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Introduction Low birth weight (LBW, birth weight less than 2500 g) is associated with infant mortality and childhood morbidity. Poor maternal nutritional status is one of several contributing factors to LBW. We systematically reviewed the evidence fo…