Pre-eclampsia is a major cause of mother and infant morbidity and mortality, especially in low-income countries. Despite advances in maternal health care, prevention remains critical due to an unclear multifactorial pathophysiology. Calcium supplementation has been proven to reduce the incidence of pre-eclampsia in communities with poor dietary calcium consumption. The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine how effectively calcium supplements work in preventing pre-eclampsia. This review followed Cochrane principles and The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria for systematic reviews, with an emphasis on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). An online search was conducted using specific search phrases related to calcium and pre-eclampsia in four databases (PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, Scopus, and Ovid). Following the removal of 215 duplicates, the systematic review identified 128 records by screening 516 titles and abstracts. Finally, five RCTs that assessed the effectiveness of calcium supplementation in reducing the incidence of pre-eclampsia in high-risk women were included in the analysis. The meta-analysis employed a random-effects model and found that calcium supplementation reduced pre-eclampsia risk by -0.09 (95% CI: -0.17, -0.02, p = 0.02). Three trials, however, reported no statistically significant reduction in risk when measuring severe pre-eclampsia, with a pooled risk difference of −0.02 (95% CI: -0.07, 0.02, p = 0.32). This comprehensive review and meta-analysis demonstrated that calcium supple mentation effectively reduced preeclampsia in people with insufficient calcium consumption, but its efficacy for severe preeclampsia needed to be validated. Additional research should focus on the best dosage, timing, target populations, and any side effects.
Key words: Pre-eclampsia; pregnancy; calcium; maternal health; meta-analysis
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