Peri-conceptional use of folic acid supplements is recommended to prevent neural tube defects. Correct supplement use seems to be less common among ethnic minorities. We examined ethnic differences in folic acid supplement use before and during pregnancy and possible effect modification by education or planning of pregnancy.
The participants were 811 healthy pregnant women from a population-based cohort study in Oslo, Norway in 2008-2010. Ethnicity was categorized to five groups (European, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, African). Data on folic acid supplement use were obtained from hospital records and remaining data by a questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for age, parity, planning of pregnancy, education and Norwegian language skills.
Before pregnancy, 30.1% of European women and 7.1 to 13.6% of women in the other ethnic groups used folic acid supplements (p?