ReviewBritish journal of haematology2017
Safety and benefits of antenatal oral iron supplementation in low-income countries: a review.
Review in British journal of haematology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review on supplementation, fortification, and food-based interventions for preventing iron deficiency anemia in low- and middle-income countries.Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Ten2Twenty-Ghana: a randomised controlled trial on the efficacy of multiple micronutrient-fortified biscuits on the micronutrient status of adolescent girls.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- The effect of iron supplementation on maternal iron deficiency anemia does not differ by baseline anemia type among Tanzanian pregnant women without severe iron deficiency anemia.European journal of nutrition · 2023Trial
- Antenatal iron supplementation, FGF23, and bone metabolism in Kenyan women and their offspring: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Trial
- Hepcidin-guided screen-and-treat interventions against iron-deficiency anaemia in pregnancy: a randomised controlled trial in The Gambia.The Lancet. Global health · 2019Trial
- Understanding hepcidin for iron management in pregnancy.Transfusion medicine (Oxford, England) · 2025Review
- The association between serum ferritin levels and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Non-adherence to antenatal iron supplementation and its determinants among pregnant women in 35 sub-saharan African countries: a generalized linear mixed-effects modeling with robust Poisson regression analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- Review of intervention products for use in the prevention and control of anemia.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2023Review
- Quantifying differences in iron deficiency-attributable anemia during pregnancy and postpartum.Cell reports. Medicine · 2023Article
- Sociocultural and drug-related factors associated with adherence to iron-folic acid supplementation among pregnant women - A mixed-methods study.Journal of education and health promotion · 2023Article
- Obstetric red cell transfusion in a high-volume tertiary hospital: a retrospective cohort study.Singapore medical journal · 2022Article
- Gestational Iron Supplementation Improves Fetal Outcomes in a Rat Model of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Maternal nutritional status, decision-making autonomy and the nutritional status of adolescent girls: a cross-sectional analysis in the Mion District of Ghana.Journal of nutritional science · 2022Article
- Correlation Between High Serum Ferritin Level and Gestational Diabetes: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2021Review
- Effects of vitamin and mineral supplementation during pregnancy on maternal, birth, child health and development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The World Health Organization recommends universal iron supplementation of 30-60 mg/day in pregnancy but coverage is low in most countries. Its efficacy is uncertain, however, and there has been a vigorous debate in the last decade about its safety, particularly in areas with a high burden of malaria and other infectious diseases. We reviewed the evidence on the safety and efficacy of antenatal iron supplementation in low-income countries. We found no evidence that daily supplementation at a dose of 60 mg leads to increased maternal Plasmodium infection risk. On the other hand, recent meta-analyses found that antenatal iron supplementation provides benefits for maternal health (severe anaemia at postpartum, blood transfusion). For neonates, there was a reduced prematurity risk, and only a small or no effect on birth weight. A recent trial showed, however, that benefits of antenatal iron supplementation on maternal and neonatal health vary by maternal iron status, with substantial benefits in iron-deficient women. The benefits of universal iron supplementation are likely to vary with the prevalence of iron deficiency. As a consequence, the balance between benefits and risks is probably more favourable in low-income countries than in high-income countries despite the higher exposure to infectious pathogens.
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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.