VITAMIN AND MINERAL SUPPLEMENTATION DURING PREGNANCY

To determine the prevalence of individual vitamin and mineral suppleme nt use during pregnancy and their relationships with selected characte ristics of mothers, data from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant He alth Survey were analyzed. The responses of 18,549 mothers were used i n the analysis, which consisted of both univariate and multivariate st atistical 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 supple ments did not appear to be strongly intercorrelated. Young age was ass ociated with iron use, black race was associated with iron and vitamin A supplementation, and prenatal care and Women with Infants and Child ren food were associated with iron and vitamin A intake. Smoking was a ssociated with folic acid and iron use, alcohol consumption was associ ated with folic acid use, and low family income was associated with ir on use. The findings of the study may be useful in the future for more specific epidemiologic and clinical studies on supplementation during pregnancy.