Low calcium supplementation may avert preterm birth risk

The researchers conducted two randomised, double-blind trials of 11,000 pregnant women in India and 11,000 pregnant women in Tanzania to assess if 500mg of calcium per day was as effective as 1,500mg of calcium per day in reducing the risks of preeclampsia and preterm birth

Lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended calcium supplementation (equivalent to one 500-milligram pill per day) may help prevent preeclampsia and preterm birth -- common complications in pregnancy that can be fatal to women and newborns, suggests a large study on pregnant women in India and Tanzania.

Calcium supplementation is estimated to halve a pregnant woman's risk of developing preeclampsia and reduce an infant's risk of being born preterm by 25 per cent.

However, the study by Harvard University researchers is the first to evaluate the efficacy of a low-dose regimen versus a high-dose regimen currently recommended by the WHO (equivalent to three 500-milligram pills taken throughout each day).

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that low-dose calcium supplementation was as effective as high-dose calcium supplementation in preventing the risk of preeclampsia.

"Overall, our findings show that a single pill per day can be as effective as three," said joint first author Christopher Sudfeld, Associate Professor of global health and nutrition. "With a reduced pill burden for women and lower costs for governments and programmes that buy calcium pills, calcium supplementation should be considered widely implementable in the places it's needed most -- and should start saving thousands of maternal and newborn lives," Sudfeld added.