Vitamin A supplementation for preventing morbidity and mortality in children from six months to five years of age.

Study answer

What this study found

Vitamin A supplementation reduced all-cause mortality and several important morbidity outcomes in young children. Pooled all-cause mortality was lower with vitamin A, with RR 0.88 (0.83 to 0.93) in the fixed-effect model and RR 0.76 (0.66 to 0.88) in the random-effects model; diarrhoea mortality was also reduced, RR 0.88 (0.79 to 0.98). Vitamin A lowered diarrhoea incidence, RR 0.85 (0.82 to 0.87), and measles incidence, RR 0.50 (0.37 to 0.67), while reducing vitamin A deficiency status, RR 0.71 (0.65 to 0.78). Short-term vomiting was increased, RR 1.97 (1.44 to 2.69).

Study & population

Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized and cluster-randomized trials in community-dwelling children aged 6 months to 5 years, largely from low- and middle-income countries.

Intervention

Oral vitamin A supplementation was evaluated across randomized trials in children aged 6 months to 5 years, most commonly as high-dose retinol palmitate capsules given every 4 to 6 months, with age-based dosing such as 50,000 IU, 100,000 IU, or 200,000 IU.

Key limitation

Heterogeneity was substantial for some morbidity outcomes, especially diarrhoea-related measures, and the review included trials with different dose schedules, follow-up periods, and settings.

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Original abstract