Association between omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and lower risk of preterm delivery: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective

To explore whether omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is associated with lower risk of preterm delivery.

Methods

Searching the RCTs which were compared preterm birth between women with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and without before December 2019 on Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane’s Library, then performing a meta-analysis.

Results

26 trials were identified, included 20124 women. There was almost no association between omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and lower risk of preterm delivery (risk ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.01, I² = 9%), gestational duration (0.30, −0.05 to 0.64, I² = 48%). In subgroup analyses, preterm delivery lower rate occurred in groups with mixed DHA and EPA supplementation not only DHA supplementation groups (P for interaction = 0.02); The dose of equivalent greater than 1 g made a higher reduction in preterm birth significantly.

Conclusions

Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation was not associated with reduced risk of preterm delivery compared with placebo or no treatment during pregnancy. Relationship between Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and other pregnant outcomes need more evidence and clinical studies.

Keywords:

• Omega-3 fatty acid
• preterm delivery
• meta-analysis
• RCTs
• gestational age

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).