Researchers are reporting that high-dose vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy does not reduce the 6-year incidence of asthma or recurrent wheezing among young children who were at risk for asthma.
Previous studies from the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial (VDAART) showed a reduction in wheezing in during the first 3 years of life among children of mothers who took high-dose (4,400 IU daily) vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy. In a follow-up to this trial, researchers showed that there was no effect associated with taking high-dose vitamin D during pregnancy on either asthma or recurrent wheezing in these children up to the age of 6 years, suggesting that the earlier reported benefit was not sustained past the age of 3 years.
The study, funded by NHLBI, appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The NEJM study was accompanied by an editorial.