Iron and folic acid supplements and reduced early neonatal deaths in Indonesia

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Modifying Levels of Maternal Dietary Folic Acid or Choline to Study the Impact of Deficiencies on Offspring Health Outcomes
03:19

Modifying Levels of Maternal Dietary Folic Acid or Choline to Study the Impact of Deficiencies on Offspring Health Outcomes

Published on: June 28, 2024

Christiana R Titaley1, Michael J Dibley, Christine L Roberts

  • 1Sydney School of Public Health, Edward Ford Building (A27), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. ctitaley@health.usyd.edu.au

Bulletin of the World Health Organization
|July 10, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Maternal iron and folic acid supplementation significantly reduced early neonatal death risk in Indonesia. This intervention, crucial for infant survival, could benefit other low- and middle-income countries.

Area of Science:

  • Maternal and child health
  • Public health interventions
  • Neonatal mortality research

Background:

  • Early neonatal death remains a significant global health challenge.
  • Antenatal care, iron-folic acid, and tetanus toxoid vaccination are key interventions during pregnancy.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of antenatal care, iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation, and tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccination on early neonatal death risk in Indonesia.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of pooled data from Indonesian Demographic and Health Surveys (1994, 1997, 2002-2003).
  • Inclusion of singleton infants and their mothers.
  • Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models to identify risk factors for early neonatal death.

Main Results:

  • A total of 40,576 infants were analyzed, with 442 early neonatal deaths.
  • Maternal IFA supplementation showed a significant protective effect, reducing early neonatal death risk (HR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.36-0.77).
  • Lack of IFA supplementation contributed to 20% of early neonatal deaths in Indonesia.

Conclusions:

  • Iron and folic acid supplementation during pregnancy is a critical intervention for reducing early neonatal mortality in Indonesia.
  • The findings suggest that IFA supplementation can be a highly effective strategy in other low- and middle-income countries.
Abstract

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