Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Molecular Environmental Toxicology Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Nutrients. 2024 Aug 1;16(15):2503. doi: 10.3390/nu16152503.
The health benefits of vitamin B9 (folate) are well documented, particularly in regard to neural tube defects during pregnancy; however, much remains to be learned regarding the health effects and risks of consuming folic acid supplements and foods fortified with folic acid. In 2020, our laboratory conducted a population-based analysis of the Food Fortification Initiative (FFI) dataset to determine the strength of the evidence regarding the prevalence of neural tube defects (NTD) at the national level in response to mandatory fortification of cereal grains with folic acid. We found a very weak correlation between the prevalence of NTDs and the level of folic acid fortification irrespective of the cereal grain fortified (wheat, maize, or rice). We found a strong linear relationship between reduced NTDs and higher socioeconomic status (SES). Our paper incited a debate on the proper statistics to employ for population-level data. Subsequently, there has been a large number of erroneous citations to our original work. The objective here was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to quantitate the accuracy of citations to Murphy and Westmark's publication entitled, "Folic Acid Fortification and Neural Tube Defect Risk: Analysis of the Food Fortification Initiative Dataset". We found a 70% inaccuracy rate. These findings highlight the dire need for increased rigor in citing scientific literature, particularly in regard to biomedical research that directly impacts public health policy.
维生素 B9（叶酸）的健康益处已有充分的记录，特别是在怀孕期间神经管缺陷方面；然而，关于食用叶酸补充剂和强化了叶酸的食物的健康影响和风险，仍有许多需要了解。2020 年，我们的实验室对食品强化倡议（FFI）数据集进行了一项基于人群的分析，以确定在国家一级，针对谷物强化叶酸的强制性措施，有关神经管缺陷（NTD）流行率的证据强度。我们发现，无论强化的谷物（小麦、玉米或大米）如何，NTD 的流行率与叶酸强化水平之间的相关性非常弱。我们发现，NTD 的减少与较高的社会经济地位（SES）之间存在很强的线性关系。我们的论文引发了关于适当的统计学方法在人群水平数据中的应用的争论。此后，我们的原始工作被大量错误地引用。这里的目的是进行文献计量学分析，以量化对 Murphy 和 Westmark 题为“叶酸强化与神经管缺陷风险：食品强化倡议数据集分析”的出版物的引用的准确性。我们发现，有 70%的引用是不准确的。这些发现突出表明，需要更加严格地引用科学文献，特别是在直接影响公共卫生政策的生物医学研究方面。
