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Folic acid supplementation and social deprivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Caroline L Relton ,
Donna M Hammal ,
Judith Rankin  and
Louise Parker
Caroline L Relton*
Affiliation:
Paediatric and Lifecourse Epidemiology Research Group, School of Clinical Medical Sciences (Child Health), Newcastle University, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK Westlakes Research Institute, Moor Row, Cumbria, UK
Donna M Hammal
Affiliation:
Paediatric and Lifecourse Epidemiology Research Group, School of Clinical Medical Sciences (Child Health), Newcastle University, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK
Judith Rankin
Affiliation:
Public Health Research Group, School of Population and Health Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK:
Louise Parker
Affiliation:
Paediatric and Lifecourse Epidemiology Research Group, School of Clinical Medical Sciences (Child Health), Newcastle University, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK
*
*Corresponding author: Email c.l.relton@ncl.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Objective

To assess the use of folic acid supplementation in relation to small-area measures of social deprivation.

Design

Cohort study.

Setting

Antenatal clinic, Women's Outpatients Services, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, UK.

Subjects

Four hundred and fifty women attending their 18-week antenatal clinic appointment. No selection criteria were applied. Townsend scores were allocated using postcodes to provide a small-area measure (enumeration district) of social deprivation.

Results

Eighty-nine per cent of women took folic acid prior to their 18-week antenatal clinic appointment; 48% of women took folic acid before 4 weeks of gestation. Younger women and more socially deprived women were less likely to use folic acid supplements before 4 weeks of gestation. Women with a family history of neural tube defects were no more likely to take folic acid than were women with no family history of neural tube defects.

Conclusion

A high proportion of women reported taking folic acid supplements during pregnancy but less than half took them at the most important time in early pregnancy. Younger women and women who were more socio-economically deprived were much less likely to take folic acid during the critical periconceptional period. Future strategies should promote prenatal folic acid supplementation in women under the age of 24 and in women of low socio-economic status. Further attention should also be given to the use of folic acid supplements in women with a family history of neural tube defects.

Keywords

Folic acidSocio-economic deprivationPregnancyNeural tube defects
Type
Short Communication
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 338 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

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