Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Aug 8, 2015; 4(3): 41-44
Published online Aug 8, 2015. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v4.i3.41
Published online Aug 8, 2015. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v4.i3.41
Prevention of neural tube defects with folic acid: The Chinese experience
Ai-Guo Ren, Institute of Reproductive and Child Health and Ministry of Health Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Author contributions: Ren AG solely contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no competing financial or no-financial conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ai-Guo Ren, MD, PhD, Institute of Reproductive and Child Health and Ministry of Health Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health, Peking University, 38 College Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China. renag@bjmu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-10-82801140 Fax: +86-10-82801141
Received: March 25, 2015
Peer-review started: March 31, 2015
First decision: May 13, 2015
Revised: May 21, 2015
Accepted: June 18, 2015
Article in press: June 19, 2015
Published online: August 8, 2015
Peer-review started: March 31, 2015
First decision: May 13, 2015
Revised: May 21, 2015
Accepted: June 18, 2015
Article in press: June 19, 2015
Published online: August 8, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Neural tube defects are severe congenital malformations of the central nervous system. The prevalence of these defects in China is among the highest in the world. Low intake of dietary folate is to be blamed. The provision of free-of-charge folic acid supplements to all women who live in rural areas and plan to become pregnant has been implemented since 2009. However, fortification of staple foods with folic acid has not been planned. It is time to consider fortification since many pregnancies are unplanned and therefore it is difficult for a woman to take folic acid supplements from before pregnancy.