AARHUS, Denmark, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- There are more than 5,000 cases of folic acid-related fetal abnormality in Europe each year, a number that researchers say could be halved if the vitamin were added to staple foods.
More than 70 non-European countries, including the United States and Canada, worked to enrich foods with folic acid and have seen significant decreases in conditions such as spina bifida, which can lead to an open spinal cord or brain malformation because of deformed vertebrae.
"European women have a blood level of folate that is only around half the level recently recommended by the WHO for the prevention of birth defects," said Rima Obeid, an associate professor at Aarhus University, in a press release. "There is no doubt that a policy on folic acid enrichment would increase women's folate and prevent a significant percentage of the spina bifida cases in many European countries and thus prevent deaths and illnesses among children."
Researchers used data from the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies collected on more than 9.16 million births in Europe between 2000 and 2010. They reported 7,478 cases of spina bifida among all births -- meaning that 8.16 per 10,000 babies were born with the defect. In Europe, 2 out 3 fetuses diagnosed with spina bifida are aborted in the beginning of pregnancy because of the surgeries needed to correct defects and potential for lifelong disabilities even after correction.
Overall, governments that have worked with the food industry to enrich staple foods with folic acid have seen their rates of fetal abnormality related to the vitamin cut in half. Researchers expressed confidence the same could be seen in Europe if countries there do the same.
"Food enrichment with a minor amount of folic acid has been shown to be safe for the population -- also without side effects for other age groups and men -- and an effective way of lowering the level of birth defects," Obeid said. "It is the most cost-effective way to reach every woman before pregnancy and to reduce child mortality and the risk of disease. But introducing such a measure would require collaboration between policy makers, stakeholders, researchers and healthcare professionals and a country-specific preparation and monitoring processes."
The study is published in Birth Defects Research: Clinical and Molecular Teratology..
