Vitamin and mineral supplementation during pregnancy

To determine the prevalence of individual vitamin and mineral supplement use during pregnancy and their relationships with selected characteristics of mothers, data from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey were analyzed. The responses of 18,549 mothers were used in the analysis, which consisted of both univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The prevalence of use for each of six supplements varied from 1.89% for zinc to 33.45% for iron. The use of these supplements did not appear to be strongly intercorrelated. Young age was associated with iron use, black race was associated with iron and vitamin A supplementation, and prenatal care and Women with Infants and Children food were associated with iron and vitamin A intake. Smoking was associated with folic acid and iron use, alcohol consumption was associated with folic acid use, and low family income was associated with iron use. The findings of the study may be useful in the future for more specific epidemiologic and clinical studies on supplementation during pregnancy.