Nutritional and Anti-infective Interventions for Malnutrition in Pregnancy (Beleuman Welbodi)

Summary

Acute malnutrition in pregnancy is a risk factor for adverse outcomes in mothers and their unborn children. Undernutrition during pregnancy can result in maternal complications such as life-threatening hemorrhage and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and infant complications such as intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight, pre-term delivery and poor cognitive development. Poor women in the developing world are at heightened risk of malnutrition due to inadequate dietary intake and are subject to transmission of a number of infections including malaria, intestinal helminths, and genitourinary infections. Food interventions for malnutrition may be less effective under conditions with excessive inflammation and infection, and especially so during pregnancy. Without specifically addressing treatment for infections, undernourished mothers may be less responsive to nutritional interventions. The benefits of treating both malnutrition and common infections simultaneously remain largely unstudied. This study tests the hypothesis that malnourished pregnant women receiving 100 grams per day of a specially formulated ready-to-use supplementary food in addition to a combination of 5 anti-infective interventions will have greater weight gain in pregnancy and deliver larger, longer infants than women receiving the standard of care. The outcome of the pregnancy and maternal nutritional status will be followed until 6 months after delivery.

Timeline

Start

2017-02-27

Primary completion

2019-09-24

Completion

2020-02-24

Publications

• Hendrixson DT, Lasowski PN, Koroma AS, Manary MJ. Newborn Mid-Upper Arm Circumference Identifies Low-Birth Weight and Vulnerable Infants: A Secondary Analysis. Curr Dev Nutr. 2022 Sep 12;6(10):nzac138. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzac138. eCollection 2022 Oct.
• Hendrixson DT, Smith K, Lasowski P, Callaghan-Gillespie M, Weber J, Papathakis P, Iversen PO, Koroma AS, Manary MJ. A novel intervention combining supplementary food and infection control measures to improve birth outcomes in undernourished pregnant women in Sierra Leone: A randomized, controlled clinical effectiveness trial. PLoS Med. 2021 Sep 28;18(9):e1003618. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003618. eCollection 2021 Sep.
• Hendrixson DT, Koroma AS, Callaghan-Gillespie M, Weber J, Papathakis P, Manary MJ. Use of a novel supplementary food and measures to control inflammation in malnourished pregnant women in Sierra Leone to improve birth outcomes: study protocol for a prospective, randomized, controlled clinical effectiveness trial. BMC Nutr. 2018 Apr 2;4:15. doi: 10.1186/s40795-018-0218-y. eCollection 2018.

Drugs

Indications