DHA Supplementation Improves Reading in Under-Performing Children [ISSFAL 2012]

This research group from the University of Oxford reported that 6-10 year old children with the lowest blood levels of DHA omega-3 (reflective of lower dietary intakes) exhibited a lower working memory and a poorer reading ability as compared to children with much higher levels. Thus, they conducted a clinical research trial on 362 children from UK schools (ages 7-9 years) who exhibited the bottom third with respect to reading ability (“poor readers”).

This DOLAB Study randomized 182 children to receive daily supplementation with a placebo (control group) while the others (180 children) received 600 mg DHA/day for a period of 16 weeks. Reading performances (at day 0 and 16 weeks) were measured by the British Ability Scales – Single Word Reading. For those children whose initial reading performance was at or below the 20 percentile (bottom fifth) of the group, a significant benefit of DHA supplementation was found. This benefit of DHA was even more pronounced for those in the bottom 10 %. For children in the bottom 20 % , an additional 0.8 months of reading age ability was gained with DHA relative to the controls (not receiving DHA supplement). For children in the bottom 10 % , the additional reading age gain with DHA was estimated at 1.9 months. The researchers concluded that DHA supplementation appears to be a safe and effective way to improve reading and behaviour in healthy but under-performing children from mainstream schools.