Dr. Howse noted that the 2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from CDC found that average blood levels of folic acid in women of childbearing age have increased since 1998 (see Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Oct. 27, 2000). An article in the June 20, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that NTDs in newborns are down 19 percent.
These data show that were moving in the right direction, Dr. Howse said. But we could prevent many more NTDs if we increased multivitamin use.
Neural tube defects are among the most serious 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. Another NTD is anencephaly, a fatal condition in which a baby is born with a severely underdeveloped brain and skull.
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 conception and continuing into the early months of pregnancy, as part of a healthy diet including foods containing folic acid, such as leafy green vegetables, orange juice, peanuts, beans, and fortified grains.
Today's survey follows up four previous March of Dimes polls of women's knowledge and behavior on issues related to healthy pregnancy. It was conducted for the March of Dimes by The Gallup Organization under a grant from the CDC.
The survey results are based on telephone interviews with a national sample of 2,001 women age 18 to 45 conducted from April 14 to May 22, 2001. For results based on samples of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effec
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Contact: Beth Rowan
browan@modimes.org
914-997-4269
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
5-Sep-2001