Trial reportThe American journal of clinical nutrition2012
Phosphatidylcholine supplementation in pregnant women consuming moderate-choline diets does not enhance infant cognitive function: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Trial report in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- Choline During Pregnancy and Child Neurodevelopment: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials and Observational Studies.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Association between Maternal Choline, Fetal Brain Development, and Child Neurocognition: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Human Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- Choline, Neurological Development and Brain Function: A Systematic Review Focusing on the First 1000 Days.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Prenatal Primary Prevention of Mental Illness by Micronutrient Supplements in Pregnancy.The American journal of psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Effects of Nutritional Interventions during Pregnancy on Infant and Child Cognitive Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2017Pooled it
- Adaptive changes in multiple aspects of emotion regulation in the offspring of pregnant persons receiving a diet-and-exercise intervention relative to usual pregnancy care: a randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Trial
- Prenatal choline supplementation improves child sustained attention: A 7-year follow-up of a randomized controlled feeding trial.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2022Trial
- Four-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of choline for neurodevelopment in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2020Trial
- Feasibility and Acceptability of Maternal Choline Supplementation in Heavy Drinking Pregnant Women: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2018Trial
- Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double-blind, controlled feeding study.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2018Trial
- Dose and Timing of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Maternal Nutritional Supplements: Developmental Effects on 6-Month-Old Infants.Maternal and child health journal · 2015Trial
- Choline status and related health outcomes in humans: A scoping review.Nutrition and health · 2026Article
- Recent Choline Intake Is Inversely Associated with Inflammation in Pregnancy - Evidence from the Canadian APrON Cohort.The Journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- The Effect of Maternal Choline Intake on Offspring Cognition in Adolescence: Protocol for a 14-year Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Feeding Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Choline-An Underappreciated Component of a Mother-to-Be's Diet.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Maternal Plasma Choline during Gestation and Small for Gestational Age Infants.American journal of perinatology · 2024Article
- Developmental Windows for Effects of Choline and Folate on Excitatory and Inhibitory Neurotransmission During Human Gestation.Developmental psychobiology · 2024Article
- Prenatal choline, cannabis, and infection, and their association with offspring development of attention and social problems through 4 years of age.Psychological medicine · 2022Article
- Review
- SAMe, Choline, and Valproic Acid as Possible Epigenetic Drugs: Their Effects in Pregnancy with a Special Emphasis on Animal Studies.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCholine is essential for fetal brain development, and it is not known whether a typical American diet contains enough choline to ensure optimal brain development.
objectiveThe study was undertaken to determine whether supplementing pregnant women with phosphatidylcholine (the main dietary source of choline) improves the cognitive abilities of their offspring.
designIn a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, 140 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive supplemental phosphatidylcholine (750 mg) or a placebo (corn oil) from 18 wk gestation through 90 d postpartum. Their infants (n = 99) were tested for short-term visuospatial memory, long-term episodic memory, language development, and global development at 10 and 12 mo of age.
resultsThe women studied ate diets that delivered ∼360 mg choline/d in foods (∼80% of the recommended intake for pregnant women, 65% of the recommended intake for lactating women). The phosphatidylcholine supplements were well tolerated. Groups did not differ significantly in global development, language development, short-term visuospatial memory, or long-term episodic memory.
conclusionsPhosphatidylcholine supplementation of pregnant women eating diets containing moderate amounts of choline did not enhance their infants' brain function. It is possible that a longer follow-up period would reveal late-emerging effects. Moreover, future studies should determine whether supplementing mothers eating diets much lower in choline content, such as those consumed in several low-income countries, would enhance infant brain development.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.