著者

近藤 厚生 岡井 いくよ 早川 ちさ 下須賀 洋一

出版者

公益社団法人 日本ビタミン学会

雑誌

ビタミン (ISSN:0006386X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.83, no.5-6, pp.250-255, 2009-06-25 (Released:2017-10-10)

参考文献数

16

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We have been assessing awareness of a role of folic acid, intake of folate supplements and dietary folate consumption among pregnant women during the past 6 years. A total of 6902 pregnant women responded to our questionnaires distributed from 2002 to 2007. Dietary folate was measured by analyzing food records completed by 441 pregnant women from 2003 to 2007. Rates of awareness and rates of folate supplementation were considerably low, 15% and 9%, respectively, in 2002, but increased year after year to 39% and 43%, respectively, in 2007. Of the 441 pregnant women who reported their food records 150 (34%) simultaneously took folate supplements. Although the amount of dietary folate consumed averaged 336μg/day in all the women, 126 women in the 1^<st> trimester consumed only 283μg/day, 120μg less than what was recommended by the Government. It was further observed that 61% of the women in the 1^<st> trimester neither consumed 400μg of dietary folate nor took folate supplements suggesting that the majority of the women were facing a real risk of conceiving fetuses afflicted with neural tube defects. Following strategies seem necessary to suppress incidence of neural tube defects in Japan: First, importance of folate supplementation should be stressed in a booklet for pregnant women. Second, the Government should repeatedly send folate information in relation to developing fetuses to the general public. Third, folate information should be given to young girls at curriculums of the junior and senior high school. Fourth, folate supplements should be given free for those women who wish to conceive. Finally, implementation of food fortification with folic acid should be seriously considered by the Government.