Authors: Heather H Burris Martha M Werler
Publish Date: 2010/03/05
Volume: 15, Issue: 3, Pages: 352-359
Abstract
Folic acid use started prior to pregnancy confers a decreased risk of neural tube defects and yet 20–50 of pregnancies are unplanned We sought to determine whether medical providers order folic acid FA or folic acidcontaining multivitamins MVI for their nonpregnant female patients of childbearing age This is a crosssectional study using data from the CDC’s National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey NAMCS and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey NHAMCS 2005 and 2006 Among nonpregnant female patients of childbearing age 15–44 the proportion of preventive visits during which a provider ordered FA/MVI supplements was determined and compared to pregnant patients Next the rates of FA/MVI orders were examined according to race/ethnicity age insurance status region of the country provider type contraceptive care income and education Analyses were conducted using SAScallable Sudaan to account for survey design and to obtain population estimates There were 4634 preventive visits for nonpregnant women of childbearing age representing 321 million visits nationally Of these visits 72 included providerordered FA/MVI Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that providerordered FA/MVI was most common for women ages 30–34 who receive Medicaid and whose race/ethnicity was other than White Black or Hispanic Preventive care visits represent an important venue for counseling regarding the benefits of FA for women of childbearing age but appear to be underutilized in all women Our findings suggest that annually there may be over 29 million missed opportunities to recommend folic acid to nonpregnant women seeking preventive careThe authors are grateful to the CDC and the participating patients and providers who contributed to NAMCS and NHAMCS The authors wish to acknowledge the AHRQ funded T32 training grant AHRQ T32 HS000063 and the Harvard Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program that made it possible for Dr Burris to lead this study particularly Dr Burris’s advisor Tracy Lieu MD MPH Dr Burris also wishes to acknowledge the “Research with Large Databases” course at the Harvard School of Public Health given by Drs John Ayanian and Ellen McCarthy who provided the tools necessary to complete this project
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