Active Tuberculosis in HIV-Exposed Tanzanian Children up to 2 years of Age: Early-Life Nutrition, Multivitamin Supplementation and Other Potential Risk Factors

Over half a million children worldwide develop active tuberculosis (TB) each year. Early-life nutritional exposures have rarely been examined in relation to pediatric TB among HIV-exposed children. We therefore investigated independent associations of early-life nutritional exposures with active TB among HIV-exposed children up to 2 years of age.

Participants were children from a randomized controlled multivitamin supplementation trial conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from August 2004 to May 2008, who received daily multivitamin supplements or placebo for 24 months.

Lower mean corpuscular volumes [relative risks (RR): 0.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.27, 0.87] and higher birth weights (RR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.99) were protective against active TB, whereas multivitamin supplementation was not associated with TB risk (RR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.65, 1.16).

Knowledge of nutrition-related risk and protective factors for TB in HIV-exposed children could enhance preventive and case-finding activities in this population, contributing to efforts to reduce the global TB burden.

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By: Olofin IO¹, Liu E², Manji KP³, Danaei G², Duggan C⁴, Aboud S³, Spiegelman D², Fawzi WW².

¹Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A. iolofin@hsph.harvard.edu.

²Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A.

³Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, United Nations Rd, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

⁴Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A. Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A

   

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