Effects of prenatal micronutrients and fortified-food supplementation on children health and development

Maternal undernutrition during pregnancy has adverse effects on children’s health throughout their life. There has been much research on improving maternal nutrition in recent years. This research has shown a modest effect on fetal growth, but still there is little information on the benefits of these interventions on the health of children. We propose to investigate how two types of prenatal intervention have affected the growth, immunity, survival, metabolic profile and cognitive development of children at 5 years. This research is based on the follow-up of children born to mothers who participated in two clinical trials of antenatal micronutrient and food supplements during pregnancy in a rural health district of Burkina.
The main outcomes are:
- Survival rate
- Stunting and undernutrition rate
- Immunity status (sIgA, Lymphocytes B,T, natural killer)
- Metabolic profile (Hypertension, Hyperglycemia, creatinine, albumin)
- Cognitive development (fluid intelligence)