These researchers surveyed 758 postpartum women in hospitals and birthing centres across New Zealand about folic supplement use and bread intake in the periconceptional period. Criteria for the adequate intake of folic acid through proposed mandatory fortification were the habitual consumption of three or more slices of bread/day (118–150 μg folic acid/day) in the month prior to conception, and during the first trimester of pregnancy. Thirty-three percent of women reported having used folic acid supplements as recommended during the periconceptional period; with mandatory fortification, the proportion of women who would have achieved adequate folic acid intake increased to 59%. In a model of mandatory fortification, sociodemographic predictors of poor folic acid intake from supplements, including younger maternal age, increasing parity, minority ethnicity status, lower education and less income, were rendered either non-significant or appreciably attenuated. The fully adjusted odds ratio for pregnancy planning was reduced from 17.24 to 2.61 (both p<0.001).
