title: Knowledge and use of folic acid in Croatian pregnant women--a need for health care education initiative.
abstract: Adequate periconceptional folic acid (FA) intake reduces the risk of neural tube defects. There are still no official FA supplementation guidelines, FA fortification policies or larger studies of awareness regarding FA or number of planned pregnancies in Croatia. This study assesses the knowledge and practice regarding FA supplementation and reports the trends in pregnancy planning in Croatia. A total of 569 pregnant women completed an anonymous questionnaire and about 72% of them were aware of the benefits of FA. Despite 75.53% of planned pregnancies, only 14.41% of all women took FA appropriately. Croatian women get information about FA from the media, health professionals and friends, but 63.77% got this information too late. The present study showed low percentage of appropriate FA intake despite high number of planned pregnancies in Croatia. It emphasizes the need for immediate and continuous public health education initiative about FA intake targeted to the women of childbearing age before their pregnancies have occurred.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Sestre milosrdnice, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. romana.gjergja@zg.htnet.hr
authors.forename: Romana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gjergja
authors.forename: Feodora
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stipoljev
authors.forename: Tomislav
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hafner
authors.forename: Nenad
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tezak
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Luzar-Stiffler
mesh_terms: D017523:Croatia; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009436:Neural Tube Defects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016742:Preconception Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D005492:Folic Acid