The Oxford-Durham Study: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Dietary Supplementation With Fatty Acids in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder

Randomized controlled trial in school-age children with developmental coordination disorder identified from mainstream schools in County Durham, United Kingdom. For the active intervention arm, 60 participants were randomized in a parallel phase against 57 placebo participants, and the study also included a subsequent crossover period.

Children in the active arm received a daily capsule regimen of 80% fish oil and 20% evening primrose oil for 3 months. The dose provided 558 mg eicosapentaenoic acid, 174 mg docosahexaenoic acid, 60 mg gamma-linolenic acid, and 9.6 mg vitamin E daily, given as 6 capsules in 3 divided weekday doses at school and on weekends at home; placebo capsules contained olive oil and were matched for appearance and flavor.

Fatty acid supplementation improved reading, spelling, and teacher-rated behavior, but did not improve motor skills over the 3-month parallel-treatment period. Reading age increased by 9.5 months in the active group versus 3.3 months with placebo (z = 2.87, P < .004), and spelling age increased by 6.6 months versus 1.2 months (z = 3.36, P < .001). Teacher-rated Conners' total raw score fell from 74.7 to 58.1 with active treatment versus 69.5 to 67.9 with placebo (z = 5.48, P < .00001). The authors concluded that the fatty acid regimen may be a safe, tolerable, and potentially efficacious option for educational and behavioral problems in children with DCD, while motor benefits and durability require further study.

The parallel phase was short at 3 months, and the active-arm sample was modest, limiting precision and long-term inference. The population came from one county's mainstream schools, which may restrict generalizability. The crossover phase makes sustained effects harder to attribute solely to continued supplementation, and key demographic details such as sex distribution and ethnicity were not reported by arm.