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Folic Acid Professional Resources
Overview
Each year in
the United States, 2,500 to 3,000 infants are born with spina bifida or
anencephaly, which are neural tube defects (NTDs) caused by the incomplete
closing of the spine and skull. An estimated 1,500 pregnancies are
stillborn or terminated because of these defects.
All infants with anencephaly die before or shortly after birth, whereas most
babies born with spina bifida grow to adulthood with varying degrees of
paralysis and disability. The annual medical care and surgical costs for
persons with spina bifida in the United States exceed $200 million.
What's New
New Links
Kennedy Krieger Institute [website]
is an internationally recognized facility dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents with pediatric developmental disabilities through patient care, special education, research, and professional training.
The recently re-designed website includes more comprehensive information.
Swedish Medical [website]
This web site is designed as
a resource tool for health care practitioners. Using this tool, providers
can easily find links to free preconception/prenatal and perinatal health
education materials (including multilingual resources), download a
well-woman visit form, take an online CME course on cystic fibrosis
screening, examine means and costs of folic acid supplementation, and more.
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Articles of Interest
Ahluwalia IB, Lyon Daniel K. Are Women with Recent Live Births Aware of the Benefits
of Folic Acid? MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2001 /
50(RR06);1-14. Full Text
Berry RJ, Li Z,
Erickson JD, Li S, Moore CA, Wang H, Mulinare J, Zhao P, Wong LY, Gindler
J, Hong SX, Correa A, Hao L, Gunter E, for the China-U.S. Collaborative
Project for Neural Tube Defect Prevention. Prevention of neural-tube
defects with folic acid in China. New England Journal of Medicine
1999;341:1485-1490. [corrected; erratum to be published].
Abstract----[Chinese
study of the effectiveness of folic acid in a community intervention.
During 1998, we finished analyzing the data from a study conducted jointly
with Chinese health officials to determine folic acid’s effectiveness in
reducing rates of neural tube defects (NTDs) in two areas of China. In
summary, this study showed that in northern China, which has a high
incidence of NTDs, women who took 400 micrograms (0.4mg) of folic acid
daily at least 80% of the time before and in the early stages of pregnancy
reduced their risk of having an NTD-affected pregnancy by 85%. Among
participating women in southern China, where the incidence was lower
(similar to the U.S. NTD rate), the reduction in risk was 40%.]
Botto LD, Yang Q.
5,10-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene variants and congenital
anomalies: a HuGE review. American Journal of Epidemiology
2000;151:862-77. Abstract
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Neural tube defects surveillance and folic acid
Intervention -- Texas-Mexico border, 1993-1998. MMWR Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report 2000;49:1-4.
Full Text
Mersereau P. Preventing
neural tube birth defects: a national campaign. Small Talk 2000;12:1-2,
4-6.
Full Text:
Current Issues
You may see articles and news reports on new
research findings that could lead to questioning your course of action. Evidence
must be strong before changes in recommendations are made by CDC. If
you would like discuss some of these issues with your colleagues, we
suggest joining the
National
Birth Defects Prevention Network listserv.
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