Multivitamins improve weight gain in pregnant women with HIV

Multivitamin supplements increased weight gain during pregnancy in a randomised, placebo controlled study of 957 HIV positive women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, reports a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2002;76:1082-90). About 13 million women of childbearing age in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV positive. The infection causes weight loss through wasting, and weight loss or poor weight gain during pregnancy leads to fetal loss, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, and low birthweight babies. The study was a collaboration between Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, …