title: Periconceptional folic acid supplementation and anthropometric measures at birth in a cohort of pregnant women in Valencia, Spain.
abstract: We examined the relationship between dietary folate intake and periconceptional use of folic acid (FA) supplements, and small-for-gestational age for weight (SGA-W) and height (SGA-H). The study is based on 786 Spanish women aged 16 years or above, who attended the first-term prenatal population-based screening programme (10-13 weeks) at the reference hospital 'La Fe', Valencia, with singleton pregnancy. Periconceptional use of FA supplements was categorised as non-users, moderate users ( ≤ 1 mg/d) and high users (>1 mg/d). Babies born to mothers who used high doses of FA supplements had a significant reduction in mean birth height compared with babies of non-users (β = - 0·53, 95 % CI - 0·96, - 0·09). As regards weight, mothers using moderate and high doses of FA supplements had lower-birth-weight babies for gestational age than non-users (β = - 22·96, 95 % CI - 101·14, 55·23; β = - 89·72, 95 % CI - 188·64, 9·21, respectively), although these decreases were not significant. Results from the multivariate logistic regression models showed that high FA supplement users had a higher significant risk for SGA-H (OR 5·33, 95 % CI 2·08, 13·7), and that users of moderate doses were not associated with a higher risk of either a SGA-W or a SGA-H baby. In contrast, increased quintiles of the dietary intake of folate were associated with a decreased risk of SGA-W (P for trend = 0·002), although no association was observed for SGA-H. Our findings suggest that periconceptional use of FA supplements greater than 1 mg/d is associated with decreased birth height and may entail a risk of decreased birth weight.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Salud Pública, Campus San Juan, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Carretera de Valencia s/n, San Juan de Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pastor-Valero
authors.forename: Eva Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Navarrete-Muñoz
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rebagliato
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iñiguez
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murcia
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marco
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ballester
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vioque
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D001724:Birth Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011247:Pregnancy; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D005492:Folic Acid