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| JiVitA-2: Impact of newborn vitamin A supplementation on infant mortality  Beginning January 2004, a second trial (JiVitA-2) was concurrently nested into JiVitA-1 to evaluate the efficacy of a single, oral dose of vitamin A (15,000 µg retinol equivalents or 50,000 IU) given shortly after birth in reducing infant mortality in the first 6 months of life. This trial had been motivated by findings from studies in Indonesia and, more recently, from Southern India where reductions of more than 20% in infant mortality were observed following newborn receipt of 50,000 IU of vitamin A.
Following birth (~95% of which occur at home), about 16,000 infants were visited and supplemented with either vitamin A or a placebo (~50% within the first 7 hours), and followed for vital status through 24 weeks of age. Relative to infants receiving a placebo, vitamin A supplemented infants had a 15% lower risk of mortality through the first 6 months of life corroborating previous findings of vitamin A supplementation trials carried out in India and Indonesia. |
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