Folic Acid: Vitamin Prevents Serious Birth Defects

Despite years of public health campaigns advising that taking the B vitamin folic acid helps prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine, most women of childbearing age are still not taking the vitamin in time, according to survey results released by the March of Dimes.

Only 32% of women between the ages of 18 and 45 who were not pregnant at the time of the survey took a daily multivitamin containing folic acid. This despite the fact that 75% percent of women say they are aware of folic acid. Nine out of 10 women do not know that folic acid must be consumed before pregnancy to be effective, and only 1 in 7 know that folic acid prevents birth defects. "We think this shows that very few women truly understand the importance of folic acid," says Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes.

Half of the women aware of folic acid say they learned about it from a magazine or newspaper article or a radio or television broadcast. Only 20% learned about the vitamin from their physician or health care provider. "Physicians and other health care providers should use every contact with women of childbearing age as an opportunity to teach them about the benefits of daily folic acid," Dr. Howse said.

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are among the most serious and common birth defects in the United States. Each year, an estimated 2,500 babies are born with these defects, and many additional affected pregnancies result in miscarriage or stillbirth. The most common NTD is spina bifida, a leading cause of childhood paralysis.

To help prevent NTDs, all women capable of having a baby should consume a multivitamin containing 400 micrograms of folic acid every day beginning before pregnancy, as part of a healthy diet containing foods naturally high in folic acid, such as leafy green vegetables, orange juice, and beans, and enriched grain products fortified with the vitamin.

The March of Dimes survey results are based on telephone interviews with a national sample of 2,013 women age 18 to 45 conducted from January 13 to February 17, 2000. For results based on samples of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be plus or minus three percentage points.

Each year, Medical College of Wisconsin physicians care for more than 180,000 patients, representing nearly 500,000 patient visits. Medical College physicians practice at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, and many other hospitals and clinics in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin.