ORIGINAL PAPER Health Care Provider Knowledge and Practices Regarding Folic

Abstract Objective: To assess health care providers (HCP) knowledge and practices regarding folic acid (FA) use for neural tube defect (NTD) prevention. Methods: Two identical surveys were conducted among 611 obstetri-cians/gynecologists (OB/GYNs) and family/general physi-cians (FAM/GENs) (2002), and 500 physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), and registered nurses (2003) to ascertain knowl-edge and practices regarding FA. For analysis, T-tests, uni-variate and multivariate logistic regression modeling were used. Results: Universally, providers knew that FA prevents birth defects. Over 88 % knew when a woman should start taking folic acid for the prevention of NTDs; and over 85% knew FA supplementation beyond what is available in the diet is necessary. However, only half knew that 50 % of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Women heard information about multivitamins or FA most often dur-ing well woman visits in obstetrical/gynecology (ob/gyn) practice settings (65%), and about 50 % of the time dur-ing well woman visits in family/general (fam/gen) practice settings and 50 % of the time at gynecology visits (both set-tings). Among all providers, 42 % did not know the correct FA dosage (400 µg daily). HCPs taking multivitamins wer