Knowledge and attitudes of folate, and use of dietary supplements among women of reproductive age in Norway 1998

Background. Authorities in many countries, including Norway from March 1998 , recommend that women consume supplemental folate before and early in preg nancy to prevent neural tube defects. The aim of this survey was to establi sh Norwegian baseline data on knowledge, use and attitudes of folate and di etary supplements before implementing national campaigns on folate and preg nancy. Method. A telephone survey was carried out in late 1998 among 1146 Norwegia n women of reproductive age. The women were recruited from a nationally rep resentative stratified random sample. Results. Among the women aged 18-45 years, 50.4% had heard about folate, 32 .9% knew about its role in pregnancy and 9.5% that it may prevent a malform ation. Only 4.0% of the women knew that the critical period for folate supp lementation to prevent a neural tube defect is before and early in pregnanc y. The strongest determinants of knowledge were closeness to a pregnancy an d educational level. Dietary supplements were used daily or almost daily by 53.3% of the women. The most commonly used types were multivitamin supplem ents and cod liver oil while only 0.9% of the women reported current use of supplemental folate. The women were also asked about use of folate and die tary supplements before or early in their last pregnancy: 44.3% reported th at they had used a dietary supplement and 2.4% had used folate. Among the f ew women who had been pregnant within the last year of the interview, 10.3% reported use of a folate supplement. Overall, 56.0% of the women stated th at they would use a folate supplement in a future pregnancy and 66.7% that they wanted more information about folate. Conclusions. Although about half of Norwegian women had heard about folate in 1998, just below 10% knew that it could prevent a malformation. Use of f olate supplements was low in 1998, but more than half of the women stated t hat they would use folate supplements in a future pregnancy.