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Cite this article:
Unim Hans, Byamukama Edward. Regular vitamin c supplementation during pregnancy reduces hospitalization: outcomes of a Ugandan rural cohort study. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2010;5:15 Key words: Vitamin C supplementation, pregnancy, hospitalization rate, Ugandan women Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/5/15/full Received: 26/12/2009 - Accepted: 27/05/2010 - Published: 30/05/2010 © Unim Hans et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Regular vitamin C supplementation during pregnancy reduces hospitalization: outcomes of a Ugandan rural cohort study
Unim Hans1,&, Byamukama Edward2
1Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, University “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy, 2St. Mary's Health Center, P.O.BOX 9 Kyeibuza, Kiruhura District , Uganda
&Corresponding author
Dr. Unim Hans, Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Viale del Policlinico, 157, 00161 Rome, Phone: (+39) 3406707613, Italy.
Background
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is a hydro-soluble lactone (synthesized from glucose) essential to human body and available from diet. Despite its broad availability in fruits and vegetables, in many developing countries the incidence of clinical symptoms due to the vitamin deficiency is still very high. Also, pregnant women in the developing countries are frequently hospitalized for several preventable reasons such as anemia in pregnancy, mostly iron-deficient anemia (IDA) and the upper/lower respiratory tract infections (RTI). The aim of the study was to investigate, in a Ugandan rural pregnant women cohort, the preventive effects of vitamin C supplementation on hospital admission.
Methods
384 pregnant women met the inclusion criteria and were randomly assigned to receive either 400 mg of vitamin C daily (187) or not (197) in addition to their standard antenatal vitamins until delivery. The primary outcome measure of this study was to assess the prevention of hospitalization during pregnancy in the group of women supplemented with vitamin C compared to the controls. Fisher's exact test was employed in this assessment.
Results
42.2% women in the vitamin C group and 27.9% in the control group were not hospitalized during pregnancy; this difference was found statistically significant.
Conclusion
The results of this study suggest including vitamin C in the guidelines of multivitamin prevention for pregnant women, especially in developing countries where seasonal availability of fruits and vegetables could result in adverse clinical outcomes.
