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- Title
Monitoring of the folic acid supplementation program in the Netherlands.
- Authors
de Jong-van den Berg, Lolkje T. W.
- Abstract
In November of 1993, the Dutch government recommended daily folic acid supplementation of 0.4 or 0.5 mg for all women planning pregnancy, starting 4 weeks before conception until 8 weeks after. In 1995, a onetime mass media campaign was conducted, and due to this campaign, the use of folic acid in this recommended period increased from 4.8% in 1995 to 21% in 1996. Subsequently, no structural strategies were undertaken until 2003, and at that time, 22% of lower-educated women used folic acid in the recommended period. The prevalence of neural tube defects (NTD) decreased from 11.44/10,000 before the official recommendations to 6.52/10,000 thereafter. Currently, community pharmacies proactively approach women before their first pregnancy on the subject of folic acid supplementation. This is done by means of a sticker placed on packages of oral contraceptives with the text "Child wish?*". Ask for information about folic acid in your pharmacy,"and a brochure (leaflet) containing detailed information about folic acid. (*"Child wish" refers to women who plan to become pregnant.) Data from an explorative, comparative study strongly suggest that this intervention is effective. Sustainable education programs through which women are informed repeatedly to take folic acid supplements during the periconceptional period are urgently needed.
- Subjects
NETHERLANDS; PREGNANCY; DRUGS; MEDIA buying services; MEDIA rights; SOCIAL conditions of women; MEDICAL equipment; ORAL contraceptives; CONTRACEPTIVES; FOLIC acid
- Publication
Food & Nutrition Bulletin, 2008, Vol 29, pS210
- ISSN
0379-5721
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/15648265080292S125