A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of vitamin A in Mozambican children hospitalized with nonmeasles acute lower respiratory tract infections

doi:10.1046/j.1365-3156.1999.00493.x

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Wiley InterScience

Tropical Medicine & International Health

Volume 4 Issue 12, Pages 794 - 800

Published Online: 5 Jan 2002

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A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of vitamin A in Mozambican children hospitalized with nonmeasles acute lower respiratory tract infections

Manuel Romano Julien ^1,2 , Aurélio da Cruz Gomes ¹ , Luis Varandas ^3,4 , Paula Rodrigues ^1,2 , Filomena Malveiro ⁴ , Pedro Aguiar ⁴ , Patrick Kolsteren ⁵ , Patrick Van der Stuyft ⁵ , Katherine Hildebrand ⁵ , Demetre Labadarios ⁶ and Paulo Ferrinho ³

1 Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Moçambique 2 Hospital Central do Maputo, Ministério da Saúde, Maputo, Moçambique 3 Centro de Malária e de Outras Doenças Tropicais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 4 Health Systems Unit, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 5 Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium 6 Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, South Africa

correspondence Professor Paulo Ferrinho, Centro de Malária e Outras Doenças Tropicais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 96 Rua da Junqueira, 1300 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: nop05938@mail.telepac.pt

KEYWORDS

Vitamin A • supplementation • ALRI • RCT • Mocambique

ABSTRACT

Summary objective The objective of this study was to test the potential of routine vitamin A supplementation at admission to speed up recovery during hospitalization for acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRI) and to decrease the levels of morbidity at 6 weeks after discharge. The study was conducted in the Central Hospital of Maputo (CHM), Mozambique, from 1995 to 1997.

methods Children aged 6–72 months with ALRI admitted to the paediatric wards of the CHM were assigned to a supplementation group (n = 71, receiving 200000 IU of vitamin A) or a control group (n = 93, receiving a placebo).

results The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency was very high and similar between the two groups. The median number of inpatient days for the supplementation group was 3, for the placebo group 4 days. On day 5 the rate of clinical discharge was 88.4% (n = 61/69) in the experimental intervention group and 73.9% (n = 65/88) in the placebo group (P = 0.023).

conclusion We found a statistically significant reduction in duration of admission among vitamin A-supplemented children with ALRI. This effect is in line with what is known about the role of vitamin A in human defence and immune mechanisms and with the serological evidence of the extent of vitamin A deficiency among the children in this trial.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1046/j.1365-3156.1999.00493.x About DOI