Multivitamins improve weight gain in pregnant women with HIV

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7371.989/a

BMJ 2002;325:989 ( 2 November )

News

News roundup

Multivitamins improve weight gain in pregnant women with HIV

Use of multivitamin supplements increased weight gain during pregnancy in a randomised, placebo controlled study of 957 HIVpositive women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, reports a study inthe AmericanJournal of Clinical Nutrition (2002;76:1082-90)[Abstract/Free Full Text].

About 13 million women of childbearing age in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV positive. The infection causes weight loss throughwasting, and weight loss or poor weight gain during pregnancyleads to fetal loss, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity,and low birthweightbabies.

The study was a collaboration between Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts and Muhimbili University Collegeof Health Sciences in Tanzania. "Vitamin supplements are relativelyinexpensive and could be powerful complementary tools in the treatmentand prevention of some infectious diseases," lead author Dr EduardoVillamor, an epidemiologist in the department of nutrition, HarvardSchool of Public Health, told the BMJ.

The study reported on 957 pregnant women who were randomised to treatment at gestational age of 20 weeks. The four regimenswere a multivitamin supplement containing thiamine, riboflavin,niacin, folic acid, and vitamins A, B-6, B-12, C, and E; a multivitaminwithout vitamin A; vitamin A alone; andplacebo.

Janice Hopkins Tanne, New York