Bulletin

Issue: June 2006

Research in Action

Women need to know about folate before they become pregnant

A wider campaign is needed so that women are aware of the benefits of a diet rich in folate or folate supplements before they become pregnant.

This is one of the conclusions of a La Trobe University investigation into the number of women who take folate supplements before conception and during the first three months of pregnancy.

Folate, also called folic acid, is a B group vitamin known to prevent birth defects, usually of the brain and spinal column, if taken before pregnancy and during the first three months of gestation.

It is available in its natural form in such food as beans, leafy green vegetables and orange juice, and some cereals and in the form of tablets as a diet supplement.

Ms Lyndsey Watson, Dr Stephanie Brown and Ms Mary-Ann Davey of La Trobe's Mother and Child Health Research Centre, set out to determine how many women in New South Wales and Victoria took folate at the recommended times, and to determine which characteristics were associated with taking folate.

The results of their findings and recommendations were published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health earlier this year.

The team used data collected in two population-based surveys, the Victorian Survey of Recent Mothers 2000 and the 2001 NSW Child Health Survey.

They found that 36 per cent of women in Victoria reported taking folate supplements before becoming pregnant compared with 46 per cent in NSW. In Victoria, eight per cent and in NSW, 28 per cent increased folate intake in their diets.

However, in both surveys, younger women, those with less education and less income, unmarried women and those of non-English speaking background, were less likely to take folate supplements in the recommended period.

In Victoria, women who had more than one child were significantly less likely to take supplements. In NSW, women with an unplanned pregnancy and those living in rural areas were significantly less likely to take folate supplements before becoming pregnant.

Fifty-three per cent of women cited a general practitioner or obstetrician as a source of folate information and 45 per cent cited family or friends. Receiving information from either of these sources was significantly associated with folate supplementation taken before becoming pregnant.

Overall, less than 50 per cent of women took folate supplements before conception with the proportion significantly lower among socially disadvantaged groups. Ms Watson said that since women are unlikely to achieve adequate folate intake before conception without deliberate action, a multifaceted approach to providing women with information about folate was needed.

'As well, future surveys are needed to monitor usage and knowledge,' she said.