HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2004.058859v1 95/11/1917    most recent Submit a response Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (16) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Grosse, S. D. Articles by Mulinare, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Grosse, S. D. Articles by Mulinare, J. Related Collections Birth Outcomes Nutrition/Food Prevention Government

Scott D. Grosse, PhD, Norman J. Waitzman, PhD, Patrick S. Romano, MD, MPH and Joseph Mulinare, MD, MPH

Scott Grosse and Joseph Mulinare are with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, Ga. Norman Waitzman is with the Department of Economics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Patrick Romano is with the Division of General Medicine and Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, University of California, Davis, Sacramento.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Scott Grosse, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Mail Stop E-87, Atlanta, GA 30333 (e-mail: sgrosse{at}cdc.gov).

Before a 1996 US regulation requiring fortification of enriched cereal-grain products with folic acid, 3 economic evaluations projected net economic benefits or cost savings of folic acid fortification resulting from the prevention of pregnancies affected by a neural tube defect. Because the observed decline in neural tube defect rates is greater than was forecast before fortification, the economic gains are correspondingly larger.

Applying both cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness analytic techniques, we estimated that folic acid fortification is associated with annual economic benefit of $312 million to $425 million. The cost savings (net reduction in direct costs) were estimated to be in the range of $88 million to $145 million per year.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. J Benevenga Consideration of betaine and one-carbon sources of N5-methyltetrahydrofolate for use in homocystinuria and neural tube defects Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, April 1, 2007; 85(4): 946 - 949. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. M. Robbins, J. M. Tilford, T.M. Bird, M. A. Cleves, J. A. Reading, and C. A. Hobbs Hospitalizations of Newborns With Folate-Sensitive Birth Defects Before and After Fortification of Foods With Folic Acid Pediatrics, September 1, 2006; 118(3): 906 - 915. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. A. Brush, M. M. Kelly, D. Green, M. Gaffney, J. Kattwinkel, and M. French Meeting the Challenge: Using Policy to Improve Children's Health Am J Public Health, November 1, 2005; 95(11): 1904 - 1909. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]