The Effectiveness of Folate-Fortified Oral Contraceptives in Maintaining Optimal Folate Levels to Protect Against Neural Tube Defects: A Systematic Review

To conduct a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of a folate-fortified oral contraceptive preparation in increasing blood folate concentrations to levels providing optimal protection against neural tube defects (> 906 nmol/L).We searched Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for human studies published from inception to June 2013 that evaluated oral contraceptive use and folate status. Case-control studies, cohort...