Folic acid use declines in some Californian women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New data from the California Women's Health Survey suggest that the use of folic acid supplements is declining among Hispanic women and among less educated women in the state.

Suzanne Haydu and colleagues from the California Department of Public Health report these findings in the current issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Studies have shown that adequate levels of folic acid are important during pregnancy to lower the chances of having an infant with a serious neurological defect such as spina bifida - and folic acid is believed to be especially important in the first trimester.

Because half of all pregnancies in the U.S. and not planned and most women don't know they are pregnant immediately, the Institute of Medicine recommends that all women of childbearing age consume at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily through dietary supplements, fortified foods or a combination of the two.

The downward trend in folic acid use is worrisome for several reasons, they point out. The number of pregnancies affected by a neural tube defect is twice as high among Hispanic women as white women in California; the number of births among Hispanics in the state has risen steadily in the last decade; and Hispanics account for 52 percent of all births in the state.

The number of California women ages 18 to 44 years taking folic acid supplements daily did not change much from 2002 (40 percent) to 2006 (41 percent), and a drop off was noted in 2005 (36.5 percent), Haydu and colleagues report.

However, among Hispanic women, the daily use of folic acid supplements fell significantly from 32.8 percent in 2002 to 30.2 percent in 2006.

The researchers warn that California and all other states are "far from meeting the Healthy People 2010 objective for folic acid intake." This goal is to increase the proportion of nonpregnant women between 15 and 44 years who consume at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily to 80 percent.

Additional targeted and evidence-based public health interventions are needed to increase folic acid intake among these populations, Haydu and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, October 26, 2007.