Abstract
Objective
Periconceptional folic acid or multivitamin supplementation is recommended for prospective
pregnant women to prevent neural-tube defects. The question is whether it is worth
continuing these supplementations after the first trimester of pregnancy or not. Thus
the possible fetal growth promoting and/or preterm birth reducing effect of vitamin
supplements in the second and mainly in the third trimester was studied.
Study design
Comparison of birth outcomes of singletons born to primiparous pregnant women with
prospectively and medically recorded vitamin supplement in the population-based data
set of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities (HCCSCA),
1980–1996 contained 6293, 169, and 311 primiparae with folic acid alone, multivitamins
and folic acid + multivitamin supplementation, respectively, and their data were compared to the data
of 7319 pregnant women without folic acid and folic acid-containing multivitamin supplementation
as reference.
Results
Mean gestational age was 0.3 week longer and mean birth weight was by 37 g higher in the group of folic acid alone, than in the reference group (39.2 weeks;
3216 g). The rate of preterm births (7.6%) was significantly lower compared with the reference
sample (11.8%), but the rate of low birth weight newborns did not show significant
reduction. Folic acid alone in the third trimester associated with 0.6 week longer
gestational age and a more significant reduction in the rate of preterm births (4.8%).
Conclusions
Minor increase in mean birth weight after high dose of folic acid supplementation
during pregnancy would not be expected to result in too large babies; however, the
significant reduction in the rate of preterm births may have great public health benefit.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 05, 2009
Accepted:
October 14,
2009
Received in revised form:
September 14,
2009
Received:
February 3,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
