Analyses of trends in prevalence of congenital heart defects and folic acid supplementation

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are of public health concern given that they occur in approximately 1% of all live births (1,2), are the leading cause of infant deaths due to birth defects (3,4), and are one of the most common reasons for use of health services among children with chronic conditions, accounting for $5.6 billion in hospitalization costs alone in 2009–15.1% of all pediatric hospitalization costs (5).