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Neural Tube Defects Among Mexican American's Living On The US-Mexico Border: Effects of Folic Acid and Dietary Folate

Author: Suarez, Lucina; Hendricks, Katherine A.; Cooper Sharon P.
Date Published: 2000


A case-control study that investigated the role of folic acid and dietary folate intake in NTD risk among Mexican Americans living along the Texas-Mexico border. From January 1995 to February 1999, 148 Mexican-American women with NTDaffected pregnancies and 158 women with normal live births were interviewed in person about use of vitamin supplements and dietary intakes during a 6-month periconceptional period (from 3 months before conception to 3 months after conception). Daily preconceptional consumption of vitamin supplements containing folic acid was 2.5% in control women and 2.0% in case women (odds ratio = 0.77; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.19, 3.22). With adjustment for maternal age, education, obesity, and previous stillbirth or miscarriage, the risk estimate was essentially null (odds ratio = 1.12; 95% CI: 0.22, 5.78). Combined folic acid intake from diet and supplements showed only a modest risk reduction for intakes of =1.0 mg per day (adjusted odds ratio = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.31,1.72). The fact that the primary folic acid exposure was in the form of dietary polyglutamates rather than the more easily absorbed supplemental monoglutamates may explain an apparent decreased effect in this population.

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