↓ Skip to main content

Effect of folate intake on health outcomes in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis on birth weight, placental weight and length of gestation

Overview of attention for article published in Nutrition Journal, September 2012
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (72nd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
5 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
9 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
video
5 YouTube creators

Citations

dimensions_citation
125 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
225 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Effect of folate intake on health outcomes in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis on birth weight, placental weight and length of gestation
Published in
Nutrition Journal, September 2012
DOI 10.1186/1475-2891-11-75
Pubmed ID
Authors

Katalin Fekete, Cristiana Berti, Monica Trovato, Szimonetta Lohner, Carla Dullemeijer, Olga W Souverein, Irene Cetin, Tamás Decsi

Abstract

The beneficial effect of folic acid supplementation before and shortly after conception is well recognized, whereas the effect of supplementation during the second and third trimesters is controversial and poorly documented. Our aims were to systematically review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effect of folate supplementation on birth weight, placental weight and length of gestation and to assess the dose-response relationship between folate intake (folic acid plus dietary folate) and health outcomes. The MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library CENTRAL databases were searched from inception to February 2010 for RCTs in which folate intake and health outcomes in pregnancy were investigated. We calculated the overall intake-health regression coefficient (β^) by using random-effects meta-analysis on a log(e)-log(e) scale. Data of 10 studies from 8 RCTs were analyzed. We found significant dose-response relationship between folate intake and birth weight (P=0.001), the overall β^ was 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01, 0.05). This relationship indicated 2% increase in birth weight for every two-fold increase in folate intake. In contrast, we did not find any beneficial effect of folate supplementation on placental weight or on length of gestation. There is a paucity of well-conducted RCTs investigating the effect of folate supplementation on health outcomes in pregnancy. The dose-response methodology outlined in the present systematic review may be useful for designing clinical studies on folate supplementation and for developing recommendations for pregnant women.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
As of 1 July 2024, you may notice a temporary increase in the numbers of X profiles with Unknown location. Click here to learn more.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 225 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Pakistan 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 223 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 39 17%
Student > Bachelor 33 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 23 10%
Student > Postgraduate 18 8%
Researcher 17 8%
Other 35 16%
Unknown 60 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 57 25%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 37 16%
Nursing and Health Professions 23 10%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 12 5%
Social Sciences 7 3%
Other 19 8%
Unknown 70 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 56. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 July 2024.
All research outputs
#799,348
of 26,371,446 outputs
Outputs from Nutrition Journal
#232
of 1,554 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,171
of 190,981 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nutrition Journal
#10
of 36 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,371,446 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,554 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 190,981 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 36 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its contemporaries.