Antenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation: call to action for change in recommendation

We appreciate the comments by Devakumar et al.1 and agree that there are still some unanswered questions regarding the long-term impact of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) during pregnancy. However, in their assessment, Devakumar and colleagues ignore the significant benefits shown in the individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis, which strongly influenced our task force's conclusions. Rather, their comments focus only on the birth size data from the Cochrane reviews.2, 3 In the IPD meta-analysis, which included data from nearly 113,000 pregnancies, the authors found that, in addition to reducing the risk of low birthweight, MMS significantly reduces the risk of preterm birth (RR = 0.93 (0.87–0.98), random effects).2 The Cochrane review also states that MMS “probably led to a slight reduction…