Effect of vitamin A and beta  carotene supplementation on women's health

BMJ 1999;318:551-552 ( 27 February )

Editorials

Effect of vitamin A and $beta$ carotene supplementation on women's health

Evidence from Nepal suggests benefits $---$ but raises further questions

Papers p 570

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Much research has been devoted to child health in populations deficient in vitamin A ¹ ² but much less to maternal health.On p 570 West et al present a report based on a large field trialin Nepal which examines the health benefits to women of supplementationwith vitamin A or $beta$ carotene.³ Vitamin A is found only in foodsof animal origin, whereas $beta$ carotene is the main vitamin A precursorof plant origin. The authors used a hard endpoint $---$ all-cause maternalmortality $---$ in a strong design, and they found that both vitaminA and $beta$ carotene were effective. More work needs to be done, however,before supplementation is recommended for populations such asNepal's.

Women of childbearing age were allocated according to area of residence, by cluster randomisation, to one of three dietaryinterventions: a single weekly oral supplement of either placebo,vitamin A, or $beta$ carotene. Female field workers gave participatingwomen . . . [Full text of this article]

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Double blind, cluster randomised trial of low dose supplementation with vitamin A or $beta$ carotene on mortality related to pregnancy in Nepal: Keith P West, Jr, Joanne Katz, Subarna K Khatry, Steven C LeClerq, Elizabeth K Pradhan, Sharada R Shrestha, Paul B Connor, Sanu M Dali, Parul Christian, Ram P Pokhrel, and Alfred Sommer
BMJ 1999 318: 570-575. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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