Prenatal Vitamin D Supplementation and Child Respiratory Health: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Study answer

What this study found

Prenatal vitamin D supplementation in late pregnancy did not reduce childhood wheeze, eczema, atopy, lung function abnormalities, or inflammatory markers at age 3 years. For wheeze ever, daily vitamin D was 11/56 (20) versus 14/50 (28) in control (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.40; P = 0.31), while bolus vitamin D was 15/52 (29) versus 14/50 (28) (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.91; P = 0.93). Most outcomes were null, but the bolus group had higher bronchodilator use (14/48 [29] vs 4/49 [8]; RR 3.57, 95% CI 1.27 to 10.09; P = 0.008) and more lower respiratory tract infection events (17/47 [36] vs 11/50…

Study & population

Randomized controlled trial in pregnant women attending St Mary's Hospital in London, United Kingdom, enrolled from April to November 2007.

Intervention

Pregnant women were randomized at 27 weeks' gestation to either oral ergocalciferol 800 IU daily until delivery or a single oral bolus of 200,000 IU cholecalciferol, compared with no vitamin D supplementation.

Key limitation

The active-arm sample sizes were small and several outcomes had substantial missing data or incomplete objective measurements, reducing precision and increasing the risk of chance findings.

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Original abstract