Gastrointestinal and respiratory morbidity when introducing eggs as complementary food: a randomised controlled trial in South African infants

We investigated the incidence and duration of morbidity symptoms among infants aged 6 to 9 months from a low socioeconomic community receiving one egg daily for 6 months. This was a secondary outcome of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of 500 infants conducted in Jouberton, South Africa. The prim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-10, Vol.14 (1), p.25881-13, Article 25881
Main Authors: Nakiranda, Regina, Malan, Linda, Ricci, Hannah, Kruger, Herculina S., Nienaber, Arista, Visser, Marina, Ricci, Cristian, Faber, Mieke, Smuts, Cornelius M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
692/1807/1809
692/4020/1503/1501
692/700/2814
Eggs
Female
Fever
Gastrointestinal Diseases - epidemiology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Infants
Male
Morbidity
multidisciplinary
Research ethics
Respiratory Tract Diseases - epidemiology
Respiratory Tract Diseases - etiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
South Africa - epidemiology
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Summary:We investigated the incidence and duration of morbidity symptoms among infants aged 6 to 9 months from a low socioeconomic community receiving one egg daily for 6 months. This was a secondary outcome of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of 500 infants conducted in Jouberton, South Africa. The primary outcome was linear growth. Morbidity data were collected weekly using a symptoms diary and qualitative data with focus group discussions at the endpoint. Ethical approval was obtained from the North-West University Health Research Ethics Committee. The intervention group had a ~ 5% higher incidence of gastrointestinal morbidity (17.0%) compared to the control group (11.9%). Gastrointestinal morbidity without fever tended to be 1.4 times higher in the intervention group (OR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.93; P  = 0.058) and tended to be 4 times higher with fever (OR: 4.07, 95% CI: 0.86, 19.23; P  = 0.077). The duration of total gastrointestinal and respiratory morbidity was 1.5 days longer in the intervention group (β: 1.491; 95% CI 0.064, 2.918; P  = 0.041). Complementary feeding with eggs may have contributed towards an increased risk for gastrointestinal morbidity.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-76169-4