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. 2012 Jan 4;2(1):e000658.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000658. Print 2012.

Effect of vitamin A supplementation in women of reproductive age on cause-specific early and late infant mortality in rural Ghana: ObaapaVitA double-blind, cluster-randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Karen Edmond  1 , Lisa Hurt, Justin Fenty, Seeba Amenga-Etego, Charles Zandoh, Chris Hurt, Samuel Danso, Charlotte Tawiah, Zelee Hill, Augustinus H A Ten Asbroek, Seth Owusu-Agyei, Oona Campbell, Betty R Kirkwood
Affiliations

Effect of vitamin A supplementation in women of reproductive age on cause-specific early and late infant mortality in rural Ghana: ObaapaVitA double-blind, cluster-randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Karen Edmond et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives To assess the effect of vitamin A supplementation in women of reproductive age in Ghana on cause- and age-specific infant mortality. In addition, because of recently published studies from Guinea Bissau, effects on infant mortality by sex and season were assessed. Design Double-blind, cluster-randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Setting 7 contiguous districts in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. Participants All women of reproductive age (15-45 years) resident in the study area randomised by cluster of residence. All live born infants from 1 June 2003 to 30 September 2008 followed up through 4-weekly home visits. Intervention Weekly low-dose (25 000 IU) vitamin A. Main outcome measures Early infant mortality (1-5 months); late infant mortality (6-11 months); infection-specific infant mortality (0-11 months). Results 1086 clusters, 62 662 live births, 52 574 infant-years and 3268 deaths yielded HRs (95% CIs) comparing weekly vitamin A with placebo: 1.04 (0.88 to 1.05) early infant mortality; 0.99 (0.84 to 1.18) late infant mortality; 1.03 (0.92 to 1.16) infection-specific infant mortality. There was no evidence of modification of the effect of vitamin A supplementation on infant mortality by sex (Wald statistic =0.07, p=0.80) or season (Wald statistic =0.03, p=0.86). Conclusions This is the largest analysis of cause of infant deaths from Africa to date. Weekly vitamin A supplementation in women of reproductive age has no beneficial or deleterious effect on the causes of infant death to age 6 or 12 months in rural Ghana. Trial registration number http://ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00211341.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and we declare that all authors have no financial or non-financial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Profile of trial and subjects included in analysis of all live births from 1 June 2003 to 30 September 2008.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Births and infant mortality per 1000 person-years, by calendar month.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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