Neonatal Vitamin D Supplements Provide Few Benefits

There is insufficient evidence about the benefits of neonatal vitamin D supplementation on maternal and infant outcomes, according to a new meta-analysis.

For their systematic review and meta-analysis, the researchers searched online databases from inception to September 2017 for randomized control trials on prenatal vitamin D supplementation. A total of 43 studies—which randomly allocated vitamin D supplementation and placebo, no vitamin D, or vitamin D supplements below 600 IU per day to a total of 8406 participants—were included in the final analysis.
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Results showed that vitamin D had increased the mean birth weight and reduced the risk for small gestational age births. However, these findings were not robust in sensitivity and subgroup analyses. Vitamin D was also associated with increased maternal/cord serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, but the dose-response effect was weak. Vitamin D did not affect preterm birth, but there was strong evidence that prenatal vitamin D had reduced the risk of wheezing in infants by age 3 years.

In addition, the researchers found that studies rarely reported or ascertained maternal clinical outcomes, and data that was available provided insufficient evidence of benefits for neonatal vitamin D supplementation. Only 8 of the 43 trials had an overall low risk of bias, while the majority of the studies were small and of low quality.

“The evidence to date seems insufficient to guide clinical or policy recommendations,” the researchers concluded. “Future trials should be designed and powered to examine clinical endpoints, including maternal conditions related to pregnancy (such as pre-eclampsia), infant growth, and respiratory outcomes.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Roth DE, Leung M, Mesfin E, Qamar H, Watterworth J, Papp E. Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy: state of the evidence from a systematic review of randomised trials [published online November 29, 2017]. BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j5237.