Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can affect the baby’s brain development

14/12/2012

Deficiency of vitamin D during pregnancy could hinder brain development in infants, affecting their mental abilities and also psychomotor. This is the main conclusion of the study ” Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in Pregnancy and Infant Neuropsychological Development”developed by INMA Project Investigators.

The study, led by Eva Morales, analyzed the level of vitamin D in the blood during the first or second trimester of about 2,000 women and assessed the mental and motor skills of their baby at 14 months old. The researchers found that children whose mothers had optimal levels of vitamin D in the gestational period scored higher than those whose mothers had insufficient levels of the vitamin.

Thus, according to the study, published in the journal Pediatrics, over 50{3effe4377b6f02be2524d084f7d03914ac32a2b62c0a056ca3444e58c1f10d0b} of the women had vitamin D levels below 30 ng / mL, the threshold considered optimal. Babies of mothers whose prenatal vitamin D level was optimal obtained an average of 2.6 points higher on a mental test and 2.3 points higher on psychomotor examination that babies of women whose prenatal vitamin D levels were insufficient.

Differences between four and five points in this type of neuropsychological tests could reduce the number of children with above-average intelligence (an IQ above 110 points) by over 50{3effe4377b6f02be2524d084f7d03914ac32a2b62c0a056ca3444e58c1f10d0b}.

The authors also identified factors that could influence the levels of vitamin D in the blood during pregnancy, such as latitude, season of the year when the blood was drawn, maternal age, social class of the mother, overweight and obesity of the mother, or snuff consumption during pregnancy.

*Eva Morales is Doctor in Medicine. Master In Public Health. Specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health and works in the cohort INMA of Sabadell