Seasonality modifies the effect of a lipid-based nutrient supplement for pregnant rural women on birth length.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Micronutrients, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Seasonality may influence the outcome of prenatal nutrition interventions that aim to enhance fetal growth.

Models that included the Fourier series and newborn and maternal characteristics were used to assess seasonal effect modifications of prenatal supplementation on birth outcomes.

Why It Was Studied

Maternal nutritional status is a major determinant of low birth weight and fluctuates across seasons.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults and adults, women only.

The second Micronutriments et Santé de la Mère et de l'Enfant study compared a lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) fortified with multiple micronutrients (MMNs) to an MMN supplement.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Because people in this Micronutrients study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Truncated Fourier series were used to characterize seasonality in birth outcomes.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Birth Weight, Burkina Faso, Dietary Supplements, Fetal Development, Fetal Growth Retardation, Gestational Age and Linear Models.

Author keywords: birth length, food supplement, pregnant women, premature birth, seasonal variations and small for gestational age.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Micronutrients.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2015 (The Journal of nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.