Vitamin A deficiency and other nutritional indices during pregnancy in human immunodeficiency virus infection: Prevalence, clinical correlates, and outcome

Vitamin A levels in plasma and other nutritional indices were measured during pregnancy for 449 women enrolled in a multicenter cohort study of mother-to-infant transmission of human immuno deficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). During the third trimester, 29.6% of the women had low (20 to <30 mu g/dL) and 11.1% had very low (<20 mu g/dL) vitamin A levels. Vitamin A and body mass index, serum albumin levels, and hemoglobin levels were weakly correlated. After adjustment for other covariates, women with low and very low vitamin A levels before the third trimester were more likely to deliver infants with low birth weight (<2500 g) than were those with higher levels (odds ratio [OR], 4.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57-13.4; and OR, 6.99; 95% CI, 1.09-45.0, respectively). However, there was no statistically significant association between vitamin a level and mother-to-infant transmission of HIV-1, Anemia and low body mass index before the third trimester were associated with an increased risk of transmission in univariate analyses but not in multivariate analyses.