Trial reportThe American journal of clinical nutrition2014
Randomized controlled trial of maternal omega-3 long-chain PUFA supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood development of attention, working memory, and inhibitory control.
Trial report in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 6 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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation in Individuals During Pregnancy on Neurodevelopment and Growth of Offspring: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Pooled it
- Omega-3 Fatty Acid Dietary Supplements Consumed During Pregnancy and Lactation and Child Neurodevelopment: A Systematic Review.The Journal of nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Omega-3 fatty acid addition during pregnancy.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Brain Health across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review on the Role of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplements.Nutrients · 2018Pooled 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
- The Kansas University DHA Outcomes Study (KUDOS) clinical trial: long-term behavioral follow-up of the effects of prenatal DHA supplementation.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Prenatal DHA supplementation and infant attention.Pediatric research · 2016Trial
- Prenatal supplementation with DHA improves attention at 5 y of age: a randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2016Trial
- Does n-3 LCPUFA supplementation during pregnancy increase the IQ of children at school age? Follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2016Trial
- Maternal Diet Enrichment inCurrent developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- A co-ordinated transcriptional programme in the maternal liver supplies long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids to the conceptus using phospholipids.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Nutritional Quality Implications: Exploring the Impact of a Fatty Acid-Rich Diet on Central Nervous System Development.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Investigation of the Effects of Maternal Nutrition during Pregnancy on Cognitive Functions of Toddlers: A Systematic Review.International journal of preventive medicine · 2024Review
- Complexity of understanding the role of dietary and erythrocyte docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on the cognitive performance of school-age children.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Nutrition and Brain Development.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2022Article
- Nutritional Gaps and Supplementation in the First 1000 Days.Nutrients · 2019Review
- Alterations in the Fatty Acid Composition in Infant Formulas and ω3-PUFA Enriched UHT Milk during Storage.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDocosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accumulates in the hippocampus and frontal lobes of the fetal brain during the last trimester of pregnancy. These areas of the brain contribute to attention and working memory and inhibitory control (WMIC).
objectiveWe evaluated the effect of maternal omega-3 (n-3) long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in pregnancy on child attention and WMIC.
designA total of 185 term-born children of mothers who were randomly allocated to consume 800 mg DHA/d (treatment) or a placebo (control) from ∼20 wk of gestation until birth were assessed with multiple measures of attention and WMIC at a mean (± SD) of 27 ± 2 mo. Primary outcomes were the average time it took to be distracted when playing with a toy (distractibility) and the accuracy of remembering a new hiding location while inhibiting a learned response to search in the previous location (WMIC).
resultsAssessments were completed by 81 children in the treatment group (mean ± SD age: 835 ± 50.4 d) and 77 children in the control group (839 ± 65.6 d). There was no effect of supplementation on primary outcomes [distractibility mean difference: -0.2 s (95% CI: -0.7, 0.4 s); WMIC mean difference: 8.9 mm (95% CI: -10.6, 28.3 mm)]. There was no difference between DHA-supplemented and control groups except that treatment-group children looked away from the toys fewer times than controls when presented with multiple toys competing for attention but less accurately remembered a repeated hiding location. These secondary effects were not consistent with any other outcomes and may have been a result of chance. Cord plasma DHA was not consistently associated with attention and WMIC.
conclusionMaternal DHA supplementation during pregnancy does not enhance attention or WMIC in term-born preschoolers. The DHA for Maternal and Infant Outcomes trial was registered at www.anzctr.org.au as ACTRN1260500056906.
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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.