Vitamin A Supplementation in Newborns Study

Summary

This study was a randomized, community-based trial testing whether dosing newborn infants in the first few days after delivery with a large dose of vitamin A could reduce early infant morbidity, mortality and improve growth. Pregnant women in 2 districts of Tamil Nadu State in southern India were identified and recruited for participation. When the child was born, study staff were notified and traveled to the house to collect information and provide the vitamin A or placebo dose. Children were visited every two weeks until they were 6 months of age to collect information about vital status and morbidity. All children were discharged from the study at 6 months after growth was assessed and they received a 100,000 IU dose of vitamin A.

Timeline

Start

1998-06

Primary completion

2001-04

Completion

2001-04

Publications

• Results Rahmathullah L, Tielsch JM, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Coles C, Devi S, John R, Prakash K, Sadanand AV, Edwin N, Kamaraj C. Impact of supplementing newborn infants with vitamin A on early infant mortality: community based randomised trial in southern India. BMJ. 2003 Aug 2;327(7409):254. doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7409.254.
• Results Tielsch JM, Rahmathullah L, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Coles C, Sheeladevi S, John R, Prakash K. Newborn vitamin A dosing reduces the case fatality but not incidence of common childhood morbidities in South India. J Nutr. 2007 Nov;137(11):2470-4. doi: 10.1093/jn/137.11.2470.
• Results Tielsch JM, Rahmathullah L, Katz J, Thulasiraj RD, Coles C, Sheeladevi S, Prakash K. Maternal night blindness during pregnancy is associated with low birthweight, morbidity, and poor growth in South India. J Nutr. 2008 Apr;138(4):787-92. doi: 10.1093/jn/138.4.787.
• Results Moulton LH, Rahmathullah L, Halsey NA, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Tielsch JM. Evaluation of non-specific effects of infant immunizations on early infant mortality in a southern Indian population. Trop Med Int Health. 2005 Oct;10(10):947-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2005.01434.x.
• Results Tielsch JM, Katz J, Thulasiraj RD, Coles CL, Sheeladevi S, Yanik EL, Rahmathullah L. Exposure to indoor biomass fuel and tobacco smoke and risk of adverse reproductive outcomes, mortality, respiratory morbidity and growth among newborn infants in south India. Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Oct;38(5):1351-63. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyp286. Epub 2009 Sep 16.
• Results Katz J, Tielsch JM, Thulasiraj RD, Coles C, Sheeladevi S, Yanik EL, Rahmathullah L. Risk factors for maternal night blindness in rural South India. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2009 May-Jun;16(3):193-7. doi: 10.1080/09286580902863080.
• Results Coles CL, Rahmathullah L, Kanungo R, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Santosham M, Tielsch JM. Nasopharyngeal carriage of resistant pneumococci in young South Indian infants. Epidemiol Infect. 2002 Dec;129(3):491-7. doi: 10.1017/s0950268802007586.
• Results Coles CL, Rahmathullah L, Kanungo R, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Santhosham M, Tielsch JM. Vitamin A supplementation at birth delays pneumococcal colonization in South Indian infants. J Nutr. 2001 Feb;131(2):255-61. doi: 10.1093/jn/131.2.255.
• Results Coles CL, Kanungo R, Rahmathullah L, Thulasiraj RD, Katz J, Santosham M, Tielsch JM. Pneumococcal nasopharyngeal colonization in young South Indian infants. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2001 Mar;20(3):289-95. doi: 10.1097/00006454-200103000-00014.
• Results Coles CL, Rahmathullah L, Kanungo R, Katz J, Sandiford D, Devi S, Thulasiraj RD, Tielsch JM. Pneumococcal carriage at age 2 months is associated with growth deficits at age 6 months among infants in South India. J Nutr. 2012 Jun;142(6):1088-94. doi: 10.3945/jn.111.156844. Epub 2012 Apr 25.
• Results Garcia CR, Mullany LC, Rahmathullah L, Katz J, Thulasiraj RD, Sheeladevi S, Coles C, Tielsch JM. Breast-feeding initiation time and neonatal mortality risk among newborns in South India. J Perinatol. 2011 Jun;31(6):397-403. doi: 10.1038/jp.2010.138. Epub 2010 Dec 16.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.