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Education/Simulation

Poster Session 4

(1154) Prenatal Vitamins: An Analysis of Most Common Ingredients and Cost

Wednesday, February 14, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM  
Location: Prince George's Exhibit Hall CDE, Lower Atrium Level
Objective: Prenatal vitamins are a multi-million-dollar industry and are recommended for every pregnancy. However, ingredients, dosages, and costs vary widely. This study identifies the most common active ingredients and cost range in popular prenatal vitamins in order to evaluate if common over-the-counter prenatal vitamins meet the America College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) vitamin and mineral recommendations during pregnancy.

Study Design: The Amazon July 2023 best-seller list for prenatal vitamins was analyzed. The top 50 products were reviewed. The ingredient list and cost per serving was collected for each prenatal vitamin and these ingredients were compared against the ACOG vitamin and mineral recommendations. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results:

48 prenatal vitamins were included with 58 different active ingredients. The top 5 most common were: Vitamin D (94%), Vitamin B6 (94%), Vitamin C (92%), Vitamin E (92%), and Vitamin B12 (92%). Folate and Iron were contained in 89% and 75%, respectively. 44% of prenatal vitamins contained all ingredients recommended by ACOG and only 31% contained all the vitamins and minerals in the recommended dosages. The prices ranged from 0.11-2.98$ per-serving.

Conclusion: While they are many prenatal vitamins that contain a wide variety of supplements, only about 1/3 of the top 50 prenatal vitamins listed on Amazon contained the recommended vitamins and minerals at recommended doses in accordance with the ACOG recommendations. Furthermore, some of the most well-studied prenatal ingredients including folate and iron were only contained in 10 and 25% of the most common prenatal vitamins, respectively. In a time when many patients utilize online shopping for their basic needs, including prenatal vitamins, practitioners need to be aware that not all prenatal vitamins are created equally. Moreover, there is a wide range of costs per serving associated with prenatal vitamins with no correlation between cost and recommended ingredients or dosages. Practitioners should educate themselves on common vitamins with the recommended dosages.