Maternal night blindness increases risk of mortality in the first 6 months of life among infants in Nepal.
Night blindness occurs commonly among women during pregnancy in rural NEPAL: We examined the relationship between maternal night blindness and the risk of mortality occurring among infants in the first 6 mo of life. Stratified analysis by maternal night blindness status during pregnancy was done for 10,000 women participating in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin A and beta-carotene supplementation. Mortality of infants of non-night blind women in all three supplementation groups was similar, and when combined, was 63/1000 live births. Relative to this, mortality was higher by 63% [95% confidence interval (CI): 9-138%) and 50% (95% CI: -3 to 133%) among infants of night blind women receiving placebo and beta-carotene, respectively, but only by 14% (95% CI: -33 to 93%) among those receiving vitamin A. Thus, 6-mo mortality was higher among infants of women who had night blindness during pregnancy. Maternal receipt of vitamin A reduced this risk.
Christian
P
P
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. pchristi@jhsph.edu
West
K P
KP
Khatry
S K
SK
LeClerq
S C
SC
Kimbrough-Pradhan
E
E
Katz
J
J
Shrestha
S R
SR
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009390:Nepal; D009755:Night Blindness / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011336:Probability; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019207:beta Carotene / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D019207:beta Carotene; D014801:Vitamin A