Periconception Parental Red Blood Cell Folate, Vitamin B 12 , and Birth Defects in Offspring

Annals of Internal Medicine 2026

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Authors: Hongyan Chen, Xiaotian Chen, Yi Zhang, Mengru Li, Qinyu Yao, Dingmei Wang, Qu‐ming Zhao, Yuanzhou Peng, Yalan Dou, Wennan He, Yuanchen He, Youping Tian
+88 more Xiaojing Ma, Xiaojing Hu, Xiaoling Ge, Wei Sheng, Fang Liu, Duolao Wang, Weili Yan, Guoying Huang, SPCC (Shanghai Preconception Cohort) Group, Hongyan Chen, Xiaotian Chen, Yi Zhang, Mengru Li, Qinyu Yao, Dingmei Wang, Quming Zhao, Yuanzhou Peng, Yalan Dou, Wennan He, Yuanchen He, Youping Tian, Xiaojing Ma, Xiaojing Hu, Xiaoling Ge, Wei Sheng, Fang Liu, Duolao Wang, Weili Yan, Guoying Huang, Weifen Luo, Yuan Jiang, Ying Ye, Yin Wang, Bing Jia, Xiangyuan Huang, Mi Ji, Yumei Liu, Qing Gu, Qing Gu, Xupeng Sun, Linmei Zhu, De’ai Hou, Peiyu Sun, Yulin Yang, Jing Zhang, Lulu Yang, Hongbing Wang, Li Meng, Lin Zhang, Zifen Dai, Li Feng, 陈淑芳, 唐振华, Jiahao Wu, Shuhua Wang, Dan Li, Hui Wang, Yu Ke, Weiping Cao, Baoren Zhang, Hong Huang, Nailing Wang, Min Jiang, Jie Chen, Qiumin Xia, Hui Xu, Guoying Lao, Hongmei Jin, Wenjuan Xie, Pin Yi, Weiming Gong, Jianxin Xu, Yingying Qian, Mingjie Luo, Jingwei Xia, Dongmei Chen, Zhenyu Tang, Xuejing Zhu, Qing Liu, Huiling Yang, Xiaotian Li, Zhiyong Wu, Chuanmin Yin, Shan Shi, Yanquan Zhang, Mingyi Yang, Xiaohua Zhang, Lei Zhang
DOI: 10.7326/annals-25-05243
Cited by: 1
References: 41

Abstract

Background:Maternal folic acid prevents neural tube defects, but associations of parental folate and vitamin B12 with birth defects remain unclear. Objective:To quantify associations of parental vitamin B12 and red blood cell (RBC) folate with offspring birth defects. Participants:3032 couples (73 birth defect cases) with biomarkers sampled within 4 months before conception, and 17 765 women (327 birth defect cases) sampled at 4 months’ gestation or earlier. Measurements:Standardized predicted prevalences of birth defects ascertained among live births, stillbirths, and abortions due to fetal abnormalities were estimated using weighted logistic regression. Results:Higher preconception parental levels of vitamin B12 were associated with lower predicted prevalences of birth defects in dose–response analyses. For preconception maternal vitamin B12 from the lowest (

Fields of Study & Subjects

Folate and B Vitamins Research Vitamin K Research Studies Porphyrin Metabolism and Disorders

Publication details

Journal / source
Annals of Internal Medicine
Publisher
American College of Physicians
Volume
179
Issue
10
Pages
1386-1397
Publication date
31 August 2026
Language
EN