USPSTF reaffirms need for folic acid supplements in pregnancy

January 10, 2017|ObGyn

FROM JAMA

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force continues to recommend that all women planning or capable of pregnancy should take a daily supplement of 0.4-0.8 mg of folic acid to prevent neural tube defects in their offspring.

The task force “concludes with high certainty” that the benefits of such supplementation are substantial and the harms are minimal, according to the recommendation statement published online Jan. 10 in JAMA (2017;317[2]:183-9). The group based its updated recommendation on a systematic review of 24 studies performed since 2009 and involving 58,860 women. Although some newer studies have suggested that supplementation is no longer needed in this era of folic acid fortification of foods, “the USPSTF found no new substantial evidence ... that would lead to a change in its recommendation from 2009,” the researchers wrote.

Thinkstock

Half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and the critical period for supplementation starts at least 1 month before conception and extends through the first 2-3 months of pregnancy. Current data show that despite food fortification, 75% of nonpregnant women of childbearing age still do not consume the daily intake of folic acid recommended to prevent neural tube defects. The average annual prevalence of anencephaly and spina bifida is 6.5 cases per 10,000 live births.

The most recent data estimate that folic acid supplementation prevents neural tube defects in approximately 1,300 births each year.

This updated USPSTF recommendation is in accord with recommendations from the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies (formerly the Institute of Medicine), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.

This work was supported solely by the USPSTF, an independent voluntary group mandated by Congress to assess preventive care services and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.