Voedingsadvies El MondoResearch Question:
Epidemiological studies showed contradictory results with regard to the relationship between the folate content of the mother and the risk of congenital heart defects. It was therefore carried out this review article.
Swallowing folic acid during pregnancy reduces the risk of congenital heart defects?
Study Design:
This overview article contained 1 RCT, 1 cohort and case-control studies with in total 18500 16 cases with congenital heart defects.
There was no question of publication bias.
Results and conclusions:
The researchers found that taking folic acid during pregnancy the risk of congenital heart defects significantly with 22% [RR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.69-0.89, I2 = 31.9%] reduced.
The researchers concluded that the swallowing folic acid during pregnancy the risk of congenital heart disease may be reduced. Possible because this overview article contained only case-control studies.
Original title:
Maternal folic acid supplementation and the risk of congenital heart defects in offspring: a meta-analysis of epidemiological observational studies by Feng Y, Wang S, [...], Mo X.
Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4330542/
Additional information about El Mondo:
Find here more studies on pregnancy and folic acid.
How many kilos of a woman during pregnancy should arrive, you can look up here.