Regular vitamin C supplementation during pregnancy reduces hospitalization: outcomes of a Ugandan rural cohort study

Ascorbic acid intake during pregnancy

The continuing global increase in allergic conditions and diseases in children is now a serious public health and scientific issue. Amongst other concerns is the maternal antenatal diet as intake of essential nutrients. Even small deficits in essential vitamin C can permanently impair the developing brain for example. In this article, we first review ascorbic acid deficiency in different organs of both mother and foetus. However, major emphasis is on the importance of vitamin C in foetal immunity with studies showing an inverse relationship between maternal intake of fresh fruit and vegetables and allergic conditions in childhood, inter alia. Other review results are included.

Evidence based recommendations for an optimal prenatal supplement for women in the US: vitamins and related nutrients

The blood levels of most vitamins decrease during pregnancy if un-supplemented, including vitamins A, C, D, K, B1, B3, B5, B6, folate, biotin, and B12. Sub-optimal intake of vitamins from preconception through pregnancy increases the risk of many pregnancy complications and infant health problems. In the U.S., dietary intake of vitamins is often below recommended intakes, especially for vitamin D, choline and DHA. Many studies suggest that insufficient vitamin intake is associated with a wide range of pregnancy complications (anemia, Cesarean section, depression, gestational diabetes, hypertension, infertility, preeclampsia, and premature rupture of membranes) and infant health problems (asthma/wheeze, autism, low birth weight, congenital heart defects, intellectual development, intrauterine growth restriction, miscarriage, neural tube defects, orofacial defects, and preterm birth). The primary goal of this paper is to review the research literature and propose evidence-based recommendations for the optimal level of prenatal supplementation for each vitamin for most women in the United States. A secondary goal was to compare these new recommendations with the levels of vitamins in over 180 commercial prenatal supplements. The analysis found that prenatal supplements vary widely in content, often contained only a subset of essential vitamins, and the levels were often below our recommendations. This suggests that increasing prenatal vitamin supplementation to the levels recommended here may reduce the incidence of many pregnancy complications and infant health problems which currently occur.

Global Prevalence of Anemia in Pregnant Women: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Anemia is one of the most critical health conditions affecting people worldwide. The disease is silent, with a slow progression and a few physical symptoms. Anemia during pregnancy carries the risk of premature birth, low birth weight, and fetus malformations and can impose additional costs on society and families. Therefore, the aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of anemia in pregnant women worldwide.

METHODS

In this work, we have conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies that have examined the prevalence of anemia in pregnant women globally. The Google Scholar, Cochrane, ScienceDirect, Medline (PubMed), and Web of Science (WoS) databases were searched for articles published between 1991 and 2021. The search keywords were anemia, pregnancy, prevalence, and meta-analysis. In order to analyze the eligible studies, the stochastic effects model was used, and the heterogeneity of the studies was examined using the I² index. Data analysis was performed within the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (Version 2).

RESULTS

The search resulted in 338 deduplicated studies, of which 52 studies with a total sample size of 1,244,747 people were included in this review. According to the results of the meta-analysis, the overall prevalence of anemia in pregnant women is 36.8% (95% confidence interval: 31.5-42.4%). The highest prevalence of anemia is mild at 70.8 (95% CI 58.1-81) and highest in the third trimester of pregnancy with the prevalence of 48.8 (95% CI 38.7-58.9), while the highest prevalence of anemia in pregnant women was in Africa with the prevalence of 41.7 (95% CI 32.3-49.4).

CONCLUSION

The results of this study show a high prevalence of anemia among pregnant women worldwide, and the highest of this prevalence is mild anemia. The prevalence of anemia in the third trimester was higher than in the first and second trimesters. Anemia in pregnant women in developing countries is significantly higher than in developed countries due to pregnancy's economic, sociological, and health factors.

Association between antioxidant vitamins and oxidative stress among patients with a complete hydatidiform mole

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate the potential relationship between oxidative stress, dietary intake, and serum levels of antioxidants in patients with a complete hydatidiform mole (CHM) compared with controls.

METHODS

This was an observational cross-sectional study conducted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A total of 140 women were enrolled in this study and divided into four groups: 43 patients with CHM, 33 women who had had an abortion, 32 healthy pregnant women, and 32 healthy non-pregnant women. All participants underwent blood sampling, assessment using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, and anthropometric measurement. Blood samples were collected after overnight fasting (10-12 h). Vitamin levels (A, C, and E) were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography, and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels were assessed using an automated quantitative analysis system (Dimension®, Siemens).

RESULTS

Although all groups showed sufficient serum vitamin A and E levels, the participants had inadequate dietary intake of these vitamins. Conversely, all groups had an insufficient serum level of vitamin C, despite adequate intake. The gamma-glutamyl transferase values did not differ significantly among the groups. However, elevated serum levels of this enzyme were observed in several patients.

CONCLUSIONS

All groups exhibited high levels of oxidative stress, as evaluated by gamma-glutamyl transferase levels, and had inadequate intake of antioxidant vitamins. Therefore, the high exposure to oxidative stress found in our study, even in healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women, may increase the incidence of CHM in this region.

Vitamin supplementation for preventing miscarriage

BACKGROUND

Miscarriage is a common complication of pregnancy that can be caused by a wide range of factors. Poor dietary intake of vitamins has been associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, therefore supplementing women with vitamins either prior to or in early pregnancy may help prevent miscarriage.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this review were to determine the effectiveness and safety of any vitamin supplementation, on the risk of spontaneous miscarriage.

SEARCH METHODS

We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group Trials Register (6 November 2015) and reference lists of retrieved studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA

All randomised and quasi-randomised trials comparing supplementation during pregnancy with one or more vitamins with either placebo, other vitamins, no vitamins or other interventions. We have included supplementation that started prior to conception, periconceptionally or in early pregnancy (less than 20 weeks' gestation).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Three review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion, extracted data and assessed trial quality. We assessed the quality of the evidence using the GRADE approach. The quality of evidence is included for numerical results of outcomes included in the 'Summary of findings' tables.

MAIN RESULTS

We included a total of 40 trials (involving 276,820 women and 278,413 pregnancies) assessing supplementation with any vitamin(s) starting prior to 20 weeks' gestation and reporting at least one primary outcome that was eligible for the review. Eight trials were cluster-randomised and contributed data for 217,726 women and 219,267 pregnancies in total.Approximately half of the included trials were assessed to have a low risk of bias for both random sequence generation and adequate concealment of participants to treatment and control groups. Vitamin C supplementation There was no difference in the risk of total fetal loss (risk ratio (RR) 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92 to 1.40, seven trials, 18,949 women; high-quality evidence); early or late miscarriage (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.65 to 1.26, four trials, 13,346 women; moderate-quality evidence); stillbirth (RR 1.31, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.76, seven trials, 21,442 women; moderate-quality evidence) or adverse effects of vitamin supplementation (RR 1.16, 95% CI 0.39 to 3.41, one trial, 739 women; moderate-quality evidence) between women receiving vitamin C with vitamin E compared with placebo or no vitamin C groups. No clear differences were seen in the risk of total fetal loss or miscarriage between women receiving any other combination of vitamin C compared with placebo or no vitamin C groups. Vitamin A supplementation No difference was found in the risk of total fetal loss (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.66, three trials, 1640 women; low-quality evidence); early or late miscarriage (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.46 to 1.62, two trials, 1397 women; low-quality evidence) or stillbirth (RR 1.29, 95% CI 0.57 to 2.91, three trials, 1640 women; low-quality evidence) between women receiving vitamin A plus iron and folate compared with placebo or no vitamin A groups. There was no evidence of differences in the risk of total fetal loss or miscarriage between women receiving any other combination of vitamin A compared with placebo or no vitamin A groups. Multivitamin supplementation There was evidence of a decrease in the risk for stillbirth among women receiving multivitamins plus iron and folic acid compared iron and folate only groups (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.99, 10 trials, 79,851 women; high-quality evidence). Although total fetal loss was lower in women who were given multivitamins without folic acid (RR 0.49, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.70, one trial, 907 women); and multivitamins with or without vitamin A (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.92, one trial, 1074 women), these findings included one trial each with small numbers of women involved. Also, they include studies where the comparison groups included women receiving either vitamin A or placebo, and thus require caution in interpretation.We found no difference in the risk of total fetal loss (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.00, 10 trials, 94,948 women; high-quality evidence) or early or late miscarriage (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.03, 10 trials, 94,948 women; moderate-quality evidence) between women receiving multivitamins plus iron and folic acid compared with iron and folate only groups.There was no evidence of differences in the risk of total fetal loss or miscarriage between women receiving any other combination of multivitamins compared with placebo, folic acid or vitamin A groups. Folic acid supplementation There was no evidence of any difference in the risk of total fetal loss, early or late miscarriage, stillbirth or congenital malformations between women supplemented with folic acid with or without multivitamins and/or iron compared with no folic acid groups. Antioxidant vitamins supplementation There was no evidence of differences in early or late miscarriage between women given antioxidant compared with the low antioxidant group (RR 1.12, 95% CI 0.24 to 5.29, one trial, 110 women).

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

Taking any vitamin supplements prior to pregnancy or in early pregnancy does not prevent women experiencing miscarriage. However, evidence showed that women receiving multivitamins plus iron and folic acid had reduced risk for stillbirth. There is insufficient evidence to examine the effects of different combinations of vitamins on miscarriage and miscarriage-related outcomes.

Prevalence and associated factors of anemia among pregnant women of Mekelle town: a cross sectional study

Background

Nutritional anemia is the most common type of anemia worldwide and mainly includes iron, folic acid, vitamin B₁₂ and vitamin C deficiencies. Anemia is a global public health problem affecting people in all age groups but the burden of the problem is higher in pregnant women. The study aimed to assess prevalence of anemia and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in governmental health institutions in mekele town.

Methods

Institution based cross-sectional study was employed. Systematic random sampling procedure was employed to select 619 study subjects. Pretested questionnaire were used to collect the data. The predictive value of the variable to Anemia was identified by bivariate and multiple logistic regression analysis.

Result

The overall prevalence of anemia among pregnant women was 19.7%. Meal frequency less than two per day [AOR 3.93 95% CI (2.0,7.9)], Low Dietary Diversity score [AOR 12.8 95% CI (6.4,25.6)], Medium Dietary Diversity score [AOR 2.4 95% CI (1.2,4.8)], Parity [AOR 2.3 95% CI (1.4,3.8)] and Meat consumption less than once per week [AOR 2.2 95% CI (1.0,4.9)] were found to be factors affecting Anemia in pregnant women.

Conclusion

Anemia among pregnant women is found to be mild public health problem in the study area. Parity, meal frequency, dietary diversity and meat consumption were significantly and independently affect anemia of pregnant women. Using family planning methods and improved meat consumption contributes for decreasing prevalence of anemia. Moreover, Diversifying food intake and increasing meal frequency of pregnant women is highly recommended.