Wheat flour fortification with folic acid: changes in neural tube defects rates in Chile.
Am J Med Genet A
; 158A(8): 1885-90, 2012 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22711368
ABSTRACT
In January 2000, Chilean Ministry of Health mandated the addition of folic acid (FA) to wheat flour in order to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs). This policy resulted in significant increases in serum and red cell folate in women of fertile age 1 year after fortification. To evaluate the effect of wheat flour fortification on the prevalence of NTDs in Chile we designed a prospective hospital-based surveillance program to monitor the frequency of NTDs in all births (live and stillbirths) with birth weight≥500 g at the nine public maternity hospitals of Santiago, Chile from 1999 to 2009. During the pre-fortification period (1999-2000) the NTD rate was 17.1/10,000 births in a total of 120,566 newborns. During the post-fortification period (2001-2009) the NTD rate decreased to 8.6/10,000 births in a total of 489,915 newborns, which translates into a rate reduction of 50% (RR 0.5; 95% CI 0.42-0.59) for all NTDs. The rate reduction by type of NTD studied was 50% in anencephaly (RR 0.5; 95% CI 0.38-0.67), 42% in cephalocele (RR 0.58; 95% CI 0.37-0.89), and 52% in spina bifida (RR 0.48; 95% CI 0.38-0.6). Rates showed significant reduction both in stillbirths and live births 510.3 to 183.6/10,000 (RR=0.36; 95% CI 0.25-0.53) and 13.3 to 7.5/10,000 (RR=0.56; 95% CI 0.47-0.68), respectively. In Chile, fortification of wheat flour with FA has proven to be an effective strategy for the primary prevention of NTDs.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Triticum
/
Alimentos Fortificados
/
Ácido Fólico
/
Defeitos do Tubo Neural
Tipo de estudo:
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
País/Região como assunto:
America do sul
/
Chile
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Med Genet A
Assunto da revista:
GENETICA MEDICA
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Chile