Multivitamins May Reduce Risk of Febrile Illness

Multivitamins May Reduce Risk of Febrile Illness

ATLANTA--Multivitamin use may decrease the risk associated withfebrile illness (condition that occurs as a result of fever during pregnancy),according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC)National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. They publishedtheir review of the Atlanta Birth Defects Case-Control Study in the July issueof Epidemiology (13, 4:485-8, 2002) (www.epidem.com).

Researchers chose to analyze the risk of seven defects--neural tube defects,cleft lip and palate, cardiac outflow tract defects, ventricular septal defects,atrial septal defects, omphalocele and limb deficiencies--based on their inverserelation with multivitamin supplement use as documented in previous research.Results indicated a generally increased risk for the seven defects and thecombined group associated with febrile illness with no multivitamin use. Withmultivitamin use, however, the risk estimates associated with febrile illnesswere generally lower.