Trial reportThe American journal of clinical nutrition2013
Long-chain PUFA supplementation in rural African infants: a randomized controlled trial of effects on gut integrity, growth, and cognitive development.
Trial report in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 7 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
55 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 108 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review over the Effect of Early Infant Diet on Neurodevelopment: Insights from Neuroimaging.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of Fish-Based Diet on Malnourished Children: A Systematic Review.Iranian journal of medical sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Do nutrition and cash-based interventions and policies aimed at reducing stunting have an impact on economic development of low-and-middle-income countries? A systematic review.BMC public health · 2019Pooled it
- Environmental enteric dysfunction pathways and child stunting: A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Pooled it
- Polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in infancy for the prevention of allergy.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Tackling malnutrition: a systematic review of 15-year research evidence from INDEPTH health and demographic surveillance systems.Global health action · 2015Pooled it
- Omega and heart rate variability in overweight and obese schoolchildren.Pediatric research · 2025Trial
- Daily Complementary Feeding With Eggs Improves Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 in Infants.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene and improved complementary feeding on environmental enteric dysfunction in children in rural Zimbabwe: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Trial
- Factors associated with plasma n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels in Tanzanian infants.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2020Trial
- Markers of Systemic Inflammation and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction Are Not Reduced by Zinc or Multivitamins in Tanzanian Infants: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.The Journal of pediatrics · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Eggs early in complementary feeding increase choline pathway biomarkers and DHA: a randomized controlled trial in Ecuador.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Mesalazine in the initial management of severely acutely malnourished children with environmental enteric dysfunction: a pilot randomized controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2014Trial
- High dose multiple micronutrient supplementation improves villous morphology in environmental enteropathy without HIV enteropathy: results from a double-blind randomised placebo controlled trial in Zambian adults.BMC gastroenterology · 2014Trial
- Breast milk cytokines and infant growth trajectories in a low-income community in Bangladesh.Pediatric research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIntestinal damage and malabsorption caused by chronic environmental enteropathy are associated with growth faltering seen in infants in less-developed countries. Evidence has suggested that supplementary omega-3 (n-3) long-chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs) might ameliorate this damage by reducing gastrointestinal inflammation. LC-PUFA supplementation may also benefit cognitive development.
objectiveWe tested whether early n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation improves infant intestinal integrity, growth, and cognitive function.
designA randomized, double-blind, controlled trial [200 mg DHA and 300 mg EPA or 2 mL olive oil/d for 6 mo] was conducted in a population of 172 rural Gambian infants aged 3-9 mo. The primary endpoints were anthropometric measures and gut integrity [assessed by using urinary lactulose:mannitol ratios (LMRs)]. Plasma fatty acid status, intestinal mucosal inflammation (fecal calprotectin), daily morbidity, and cognitive development (2-step means-end test and an attention assessment) were secondary endpoints.
resultsPUFA supplementation resulted in a significant increase in plasma n-3 LC-PUFA concentrations (P < 0.001 for both DHA and EPA) and midupper arm circumference (MUAC) (effect size: 0.31 z scores; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.56; P = 0.017) at 9 mo of age. At 12 mo, MUAC remained greater in the intervention group, and we observed significant increases in skinfold thicknesses (P ≤ 0.022 for all). No other significant differences between treatment groups were detected for growth or LMRs at 9 mo or for secondary outcomes.
conclusionsFish-oil supplementation successfully increased plasma n-3 fatty acid status. However, in young, breastfed Gambian infants, the intervention failed to improve linear growth, intestinal integrity, morbidity, or selected measures of cognitive development. The trial was registered at www.isrctn.org as ISRCTN66645725.
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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.