Multivitamins Prevent Prematurity

Category: Women's Health

One common multivitamin micronutrient, folic acid, has been shown to help prevent birth defects. Now, a study reports that multivitamin supplementation before pregnancy can also help prevent preterm birth.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (2004, vol 160, issue 9), found that multivitamin use prior to pregnancy reduced the risk of delivering preterm (before 37 weeks) by an average of 50 percent, compared to nonusers. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compared the supplemental multivitamin intakes of more than 2,000 pregnant female participants in the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Study. The women were recruited at 24-29 weeks pregnancy from 4 prenatal care clinics in North Carolina, from August 1995 to June 2000.

At the end of the five-year study, researchers found that preconceptional multivitamin use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of both early (less than 35 weeks) and late (35-36 weeks) preterm birth. However, these findings were based on only two and three exposed cases, respectively.

"These results suggest that, compared with nonusers, women who take multivitamin supplements prior to conception may have a reduced risk of preterm birth, but further studies are needed with a larger sample of preconceptional users," the authors conclude.

Posted by on December 27, 2008 10:00 AM