As many as 2,000 babies were born with defects due to folic acid insufficiency, which could have been easily prevented with proper supplementation, a new U.K. study suggests.
The study, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood last week, was conducted by researchers from Public Health England, Oxford University, and Queen Mary University, as reported by the Independent.
Known as vitamin B9, folic acid should be an important supplement among pregnant women to help prevent formation of defects during fetal development.
However, the study found that the rate of birth defects — specifically neural tube defects or defects affecting the brain, spine, and spinal cord — in U.K. children are not declining. This mostly results in fetal death or the death of the newborn, or permanent disability for children who survive.
In the United States, the government called for fortification of the flour with folic acid in 1998 and this move resulted in a 23 percent decline in neural tube defects. A total of 78 countries, including Canada and Australia, are adopting this policy.
Had the U.K. government followed the same policy, a great number of babies would have been born without the defects.
The study revealed that there are about 2,014 birth defects that could have been avoided had there been a flour fortification policy in the country. Advising women to take 400 mcg of folic acid — a standard recommendation for the first trimester of pregnancy — alone won't work because 70 percent of pregnant women admit that they fail to take the vitamin regularly.
"Failure to implement folic acid fortification in the United Kingdom has caused, and continues to cause, avoidable terminations of pregnancy, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and permanent serious disability in surviving children," the researchers concluded in their study.
The researchers also highlighted that United Kingdom should make it a priority public health policy to fortify flour with folic acid.
Sufficient levels of folate, the natural form of the vitamin, cannot be acquired through dietary changes alone; taking folic acid supplements or folic-acid fortified food products are important.
