Folic Acid Dosage and Malformations Reduction

Summary

In 1991 the Medical Research Council Vitamin Study Group and in 1992 the Hungarian randomised clinical trial have shown conclusively that the risk of neural tube defects can be reduced substantially by taking folic acid during the peri-conceptional period. At present there is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that folic acid supplementation can reduce the risk of all congenital malformations or of a specific and selected group of them, namely: neural tube defects, oral clefts, cardiac defects, urinary tract anomalies except hypospadias, limb reduction defects, omphalocele, anal atresia and trisomy 21. The hypothesis that a higher intake of folic acid is related to an higher risk reduction of neural tube defects and of other congenital malformations is the main rationale for the present study. The present study is a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial evaluating whether supplementation with folic acid at high dose (4 mg/day) reduces the overall risk of major congenital malformations in the population more than the standard recommended dose (0.4 mg/day). At the enrolment visit all the eligible women will be interviewed to assess sociodemographic, life style and health status. After randomization, women will be interviewed every 4 months to evaluate pregnancy status. Women who have a pregnancy diagnosis during the study period will be interviewed by telephone at the expected 16, 24 and 40 weeks of gestation to evaluate the pregnancy outcome. The health status of live births will be evaluated at the child's age of 1 month, 3 months and 1 year. The primary aim of this project is conducting a study to assess the effect of folic acid periconceptional supplementation of 4 mg/day compared to the 0.4 mg/day standard dose on reducing the occurrence of all congenital malformations. Secondary aims of this study include comparing severity of CMs in offspring of trial mothers, rates of "selected congenital malformations", rates of twinning, miscarriages, recurrent abortions, small-for-gestational age, preeclampsia and abruptio placentae. The sample size is not easy to be computed because lacking robust estimate of the size effect of the treatment. Three hypotheses of a size effect of 45%, 26% and 13% were considered. A sample size of outcomes (and women) respectively of 2,006 (5,015), 8,510 (21,275) and 30,126 (75,315) is needed. Since the sample size needed to evaluate different scenarios is large, the present study is also the pilot study to promote an international prospective meta-analysis.

Timeline

Start

2009-07

Primary completion

2015-09

Completion

2016-09

Publications

• Background Badovinac RL, Werler MM, Williams PL, Kelsey KT, Hayes C. Folic acid-containing supplement consumption during pregnancy and risk for oral clefts: a meta-analysis. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 2007 Jan;79(1):8-15. doi: 10.1002/bdra.20315.
• Background Berry RJ, Li Z, Erickson JD, Li S, Moore CA, Wang H, Mulinare J, Zhao P, Wong LY, Gindler J, Hong SX, Correa A. Prevention of neural-tube defects with folic acid in China. China-U.S. Collaborative Project for Neural Tube Defect Prevention. N Engl J Med. 1999 Nov 11;341(20):1485-90. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199911113412001.
• Background Botto LD, Olney RS, Erickson JD. Vitamin supplements and the risk for congenital anomalies other than neural tube defects. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2004 Feb 15;125C(1):12-21. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.c.30004.
• Background Catov JM, Bodnar LM, Ness RB, Markovic N, Roberts JM. Association of periconceptional multivitamin use and risk of preterm or small-for-gestational-age births. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Aug 1;166(3):296-303. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwm071. Epub 2007 May 11.
• Background Czeizel AE, Dudas I. Prevention of the first occurrence of neural-tube defects by periconceptional vitamin supplementation. N Engl J Med. 1992 Dec 24;327(26):1832-5. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199212243272602.
• Background Ingrid Goh Y, Bollano E, Einarson TR, Koren G. Prenatal multivitamin supplementation and rates of congenital anomalies: a meta-analysis. J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2006 Aug;28(8):680-689. doi: 10.1016/S1701-2163(16)32227-7.
• Background Prevention of neural tube defects: results of the Medical Research Council Vitamin Study. MRC Vitamin Study Research Group. Lancet. 1991 Jul 20;338(8760):131-7.
• Bortolus R, Blom F, Filippini F, van Poppel MN, Leoncini E, de Smit DJ, Benetollo PP, Cornel MC, de Walle HE, Mastroiacovo P; Italian and Dutch folic acid trial study groups. Prevention of congenital malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes with 4.0 mg of folic acid: community-based randomized clinical trial in Italy and the Netherlands. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2014 May 13;14:166. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-14-166.

Drugs

Indications