Vitamin A supplementation and childhood morbidity from diarrhea and respiratory infections: a meta-analysis.
OBJECTIVE
To perform an updated meta-analysis of the effect of vitamin A supplementation on childhood morbidity from respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. Study design A comprehensive search of the 1966 to 2000 MEDLINE database and review of the reference lists of relevant articles identified 9 randomized controlled trials dealing with morbidity from respiratory infections and diarrhea in children 6 months to 7 years of age and provided "intention-to-treat" data.


RESULTS
The combined results indicated that vitamin A supplementation has no consistent overall protective effect on the incidence of diarrhea (relative risk, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.94-1.07) and that it slightly increases the incidence of respiratory tract infections (relative risk, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.05-1.11).


CONCLUSIONS
High-dose vitamin A supplements are not recommended on a routine basis for all preschool children and should be offered only to individuals or populations with vitamin A deficiency.
Grotto
Itamar
I
Department of General Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Petah Tiqwa, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Mimouni
Marc
M
Gdalevich
Michael
M
Mimouni
Daniel
D
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000517:prevention & control; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014801:Vitamin A