[Multivitamin supplement for primary prevention of birth defects: application of a preventive clinical practice]

To determine whether the recommendations health care professionals make to women of childbearing age on the importance of taking folic acid encourage these women to take folic acid supplements.

Survey.

The Centre de santé et de services sociaux at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Que.

A total of 323 Francophone women 18 to 45 years old.

Whether or not women had consumed vitamin and mineral supplements during the past year. Descriptive, bivariate statistical analyses and logistic regression modeling were carried out to determine whether the association between health care professionals' recommendations and the consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements persisted after controlling for certain variables (consulting documentation, knowledge, sources of information, perception, age, education, income, marital status, and plans to become pregnant).

About 41% of the women reported that their physicians had recommended that they take vitamin and mineral supplements. After adjusting for all the variables in the model, it became clear that there was a significant association between the recommendations of healthcare professionals and the consumption of vitamins and minerals by women of childbearing age.

Health care professionals can improve the health of the population through preventive clinical practices. It is important that we support them in their efforts to integrate and apply scientific knowledge in their practice.