American scientists have found out, that the concentration of vitamin D in the second trimester of pregnancy is associated with the intelligence level of the child at four to six years.
Doctors once again remind of how important vitamin D is for the body – especially for children
As you know, vitamin D, which the baby receives from the mother through the placenta, plays an important role in the development and functioning of nerve tissues. Low vitamin D levels during pregnancy are associated with the occurrence of various brain pathologies in children, and as a result, developmental disorders of the nervous system. Blacks have lower vitamin D concentrations because the high melanin content filters out sunlight.
Thus, the risk of vitamin D deficiency in black mothers may be higher. To understand this, American scientists from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute spent a study of 1,019 women in the second trimester of healthy singleton pregnancies and their babies when they were four to six years old. The researchers collected the demographic data of mothers and children (gender, age, education), described the socioeconomic status of the family, measured the concentration of vitamin D in blood plasma in women in the second trimester of pregnancy, assessed the intelligence of mothers using the Wechsler scale, and after four to six years – the intelligence of their children using the Stanford-Binet test, which measures both verbal and non-verbal components of cognitive activity.
Among all the participants, 45.6% had a vitamin D concentration below 20 ng / ml, which is considered a sign of a deficiency. About 63.2% of the participants were black and the average vitamin D level in black women was lower – 19.8 ± 7.2 ng / ml, than in white women – 25.9 ± 9.3 ng / ml. Vitamin D concentrations above 20 ng / ml also positively correlated with high maternal education, nutritional quality, and family income.
The researchers found that an increase in vitamin D concentration in the second trimester of pregnancy by 10 ng / ml was associated with an increase in the general intelligence score by 1.17 points, points for verbal tasks increased by 1.17, and for non-verbal tasks – by 1.03. The authors did not find any evidence of a change in effect depending on skin color. The study’s findings could help guide nutritional guidelines for pregnant women, the authors say.
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