Grant helps public health's fight against birth defects

By Bill Kirk

A $5,000 grant has been awarded to the Pierce County Public Health Department for an awareness effort about folic acid's effectiveness in preventing birth defects.

The March of Dimes grant will help sponsor a department outreach program promoting use of the B vitamin in pre-conceptual planning by women of child-bearing age. Folic acid reduces the risk of neuro-tube defects in babies, such as Spina Bifada, according to Ann Rosenthal, department nutritionist.

"A lot of women know about (folic acid), but not that they should take it before (conceiving)," Rosenthal said last Wednesday.

Health officials intend to take the message to clinics, schools, churches and other public facilities around the county, including UW-River Falls, the nutritionist said. High school and college students will be a target audience, she added.

She presented statistics showing only 19 percent of females in the 18-24 age group take multi-vitamins of any kind. Only seven percent of them know about folic acid and only 13 percent know it helps prevent birth defects.

Women who've had closely spaced pregnancies or whose previous childbirths have involved neuro tube defects are especially at risk, she said. These defects occur at an average rate of one in 1,000 births. They can sometimes be detected during pregnancies using ultrasound equipment.

A certain amount of folic acid is found in foods such as green, leafy vegetables and orange juice, Rosenthal said. Recently, manufacturers have begun fortifying rice, wheat bread and noodles with it as well. Because the recommended daily intake is 400 micrograms, food shouldn't be relied on alone, however. A vitamin pill containing 100 percent of that amount should be taken every day by child-bearing-age women.

Information the department submitted last fall for the grant application indicates Pierce County has 1,076 females enrolled in grades 9-12 and 3,220 at UW-River Falls. The county's reproductive health program serves approximately 1,800 unduplicated female clients of child-bearing age annually. The awareness campaign will be aimed at these target populations as well as the health care providers who serve them and the outreach activities will be tracked.

Public health's maternal and child health programs presently emphasize the need for folic acid, the information states, but the importance of pre-conceptual folic acid status is often ignored. Surveys conducted in 1998 by the March of Dimes and Centers for Disease Control indicated a need for increased professional as well as layperson awareness of the pre-conceptual aspect.

Notification of the application's success was received early this month, Department Director Jane Bruggeman said. After the county's finance committee acts on the program, officials plan to hire a health educator, she said. The educator will initiate contacts in the community, distribute information, set up and monitor displays, and program follow-up and documentation, the application information states.

The grant presentation was made Wednesday by Lori Cramer of the Great Northern Lakes Chapter March of Dimes, based in Wausau. Cramer said the organization's awarded similar community service grants since 1994 (Pierce also received a grant award approximately five years ago, Rosenthal said). The maximum amount was recently increased from $2,000 to $5,000, Cramer said.

"Our office gave at least $25,000 worth of grant money in 1999," she said. The majority of the funding went to county health departments, although hospitals and clinics were also recipients, she said.

The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health organization whose mission is to improve the health of America's children through programs of education, community service, research and advocacy. For more information, call 1-888-715-3463.