Prenatal Iron Supplementation Reduces Maternal Anemia, Iron Deficiency, and Iron Deficiency Anemia in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Rural China, but Iron Deficiency Remains Widespread in Mothers and Neonates.

Study answer

What this study found

Prenatal iron supplementation improved maternal iron status and reduced maternal anemia, iron deficiency, and iron deficiency anemia, but it did not significantly improve cord blood iron measures or neonatal iron status overall. In the iron/folate group versus placebo/folate, maternal anemia at or near term was 13.4% vs 25.1% (RR 0.53; 95% CI 0.43, 0.66), maternal Hb was higher by 5.56 g/L, and postpartum anemia was reduced (RR 0.71; 95% CI 0.66, 0.78). Maternal iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia were also lower (for example, IDA by serum ferritin: RR 0.49; 95% CI 0.38, 0.62), yet…

Study & population

This was a 1:1 randomized, placebo-controlled trial in pregnant women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies in rural Sanhe County, Hebei Province, China.

Intervention

Participants in the active arm received one oral capsule daily from enrollment to delivery containing 300 mg ferrous sulfate (60 mg elemental iron) plus 0.40 mg folate.

Key limitation

Neonatal and cord-blood analyses were limited by substantial missing data, and adherence data were incomplete for later pregnancy, with only 46.4% of second-trimester-to-delivery data available.

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Original abstract