Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double‐blind, controlled feeding study

Study answer

What this study found

Higher maternal choline intake during the third trimester improved infant information processing speed. The 930 mg/day group had mean saccade reaction times 22.6 ms faster than the 480 mg/day group (95% CI, 1.3 to 43.8; P = 0.03), and adjusted analyses showed an even larger benefit of 33.8 ms (95% CI, 2.7 to 54.8; P = 0.03). A dose-response analysis also found that days of prenatal exposure significantly affected saccade RT (P = 0.02), with an estimated choline dose effect of 51.3 ms (95% CI, 15.8 to 86.7). There was no effect on predictive saccades, and no adverse events were reported.

Study & population

This was a randomized, double-blind, controlled feeding study conducted at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in healthy third-trimester pregnant women.

Intervention

Pregnant participants in the third trimester received oral choline chloride supplementation during a controlled feeding regimen to reach total choline intakes of 480 mg/day or 930 mg/day until delivery.

Key limitation

The trial was small, with only 12 infants analyzed per arm, which limits precision and generalizability.

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Original abstract