Fish Oil Supplementation in Lactation

August 12, 2008 updated by: University of Copenhagen
The main purpose of the study was to examine whether fish oil supplementation of lactating mothers affect infant development during first year of life, focusing on visual and mental development. A follow-up studies are conducted in order to see if early intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) have any long-term effects on health, primarily immun function and markers of cardiovascular risk.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background:

Studies indicate that infants, who are fed formula without n-3 LCPUFA, have slower visual development than those, who receive n-3 LCPUFA in breast-milk. The mental development seems also to depend on whether infants are breast-fed or not. Long-term health has also been proposed to be affected (The infant origin of adult disease hypothesis). It is not clear whether these differences is due to dietary LCPUFA as comparison of breast-fed and formula-fed infants are complicated by the socio-demographic differences that exist between mother, who choose to breast-feed or not. Recent studies indicate that LCPUFA supplementation of formulas has beneficial effects on the visual acuity and mental abilities of infants. The LCPUFA content of breast-milk varies and this could potentially be of importance for infant development.

Methods:

211 pregnant women with a high (>80 percentile) or low (< mean) fish intake were recruited. After birth mother with low fish intake were randomized to receive 4 g/day of fish oil or olive oil for the first 4 months of the lactation period. 150 mother-infant pairs were followed for 1 year gathering information on maternal n-3 LCPUFA intake and infant development (growth, developmental milestones, visual acuity, cognitive functions and language acquisition). Milk samples were collected at 0, 2, 4 and 9 months and blood samples were taken from the mother and the infant at 4 months of age in order to determine the biochemical effect of the supplementation.

The children were followed-up at 2½ years of age and around 7 years of age. The study is performed in association to the National Birth Cohort.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

150

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Denmark
      • Frederiksberg, Denmark, DK-1958
        • Department of Human Nutrition

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancy
  • No metabolic disorders and prepregnancy BMI < 30 kg/m2
  • Intention to exclusively breast-feed for 4 mo
  • Fish intake below the Danish mean or above 80th percentile (reference group)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pre- or post term delivery (< 37 or > 43 wks of gestation)
  • Abnormal weight for gestation (outside 10th-90th percentile range)
  • Apgar score 5 min after delivery < 8
  • Infant admission to a neonatal department
  • If supplementation did not begin within 2 wks after delivery

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Fish oil
Behavioral: Fish oil (Dry n-3, BASF)
5 g/oil daily for the first four month of lactation
Placebo Comparator: Olive oil
Control group
Behavioral: Fish oil (Dry n-3, BASF)
5 g/oil daily for the first four month of lactation
No Intervention: High fish
Reference group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Blood pressure
Breast milk fatty acid composition - 0, 2, 4 and 9 mo
Fatty acid composition of infant RBC at 4 mo
Visual acuity - 2 and 4 mo
Follow-up:
Anthropometric measures
Ex vivo cytokine production (e.g. IL-10 and interferon-γ) in whole blood after 24 h of stimulation with bacterial components

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Heart rate variability
Follow-up:
Anthropometric measures - 0, 2, 4 and 9 mo
Problem solving at 9 mo
Language development (CDI) at 1 and 2 y
Contrast sensitivity at 2 mo
Vernier acuity at 4 mo
Endothelial function measured by PWV
Plasma IgE
Diet
RBC fatty acid composition
Plasma growth factors

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Copenhagen

Collaborators

Danish Research Agency
Technical University of Denmark
BASF

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 1998

Study Completion

January 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 15, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 15, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

December 16, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 14, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 12, 2008

Last Verified

August 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • KVL-IHE-D72
  • FØTEK 2: 93s-2468-å96-00020
  • FØTEK 3: 2011-00-0028
  • KF 01-300/98
  • KF 01-183/01

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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