Vitamins

Nutraceuticals World, Oct, 2006

Nutraceutical(s): Vitamins

Indication: Pre-eclampsia

Source: American Journal of Epidemiology, September 2006;164(5):470-477.

Research: The objective of this study was to assess the independent effect of regular periconceptional (before pregnancy) multivitamin use on the risk of pre-eclampsia. Over 1800 pregnant women enrolled in the Pregnancy Exposures and Pre-eclampsia Prevention Study (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1997-2001) at less than 16 weeks' gestation and were asked whether they regularly used multivitamins or prenatal vitamins over the past six months. Women were classified as users or non-users.

Results: After adjustment for race/ethnicity, marital status, parity, pre-pregnancy physical activity and income in a multiple logistic regression model, regular use of multivitamins was associated with a 45% reduction in pre-eclampsia risk compared with non-use. Pre-pregnancy overweight modified this effect. After confounder adjustment, lean multivitamin users had a 71% reduction in pre-eclampsia risk compared with lean non-users. In contrast, there was no relation between multivitamin use and pre-eclampsia among overweight women.

These preliminary results seem to suggest that regular use of a multivitamin supplement in the periconceptional period may help to prevent preeclampsia, particularly among lean women.