Costs of Pregnancy much reduced by Vitamin D

Created December 2016

:: Under construction ::


Problem	Rate	Medical Cost Include 1st year	Reduction wirh Vit D	1. needed
to treat	Amortized savings per pregnancy
Preterm & LBW	12%	$51,800	50%	20	$2,590
Low Birth Weight	8% CDC	$50,000	60%	21	$2,400
Miscarriage	20%	$4,000 1/2 get D&C;	40% if > 20 ng	12.5	$320
Stillbirth (Omega-3)	0.6%	$7,500 mean	66%	242	$30
Vibrosis

Note

The savings due to Miscarriage and Stillbirth are so small that they can be ignored

Preterm birth and low birth weight (LBW) have a lot in common.

Cost savings of preventing preterm and LBW is most likely less than the sum of of the two

The range is from $2,600 to $5,000

Let's conservatively assume the amortized savings due to Vitamin D for a pregnancy = $3,000

Also assume that the total cost of vitamin D, instruction, tests, overhead, and paying the pregnant woman to take it is $1,000

Could, for example, send a check of $546 to a pregnant woman with good level of vitamin D (> 40 ng)

$546 = $2 a day X 39 weeks

This would still leave $2,000 net profit per Vitamin-D-boosted pregnancy for a Health Insurance company or Health Maintenance Organization

-=::LBW REFERENCES::=-

Appears that 1/3 of LBW is due to premature birth, 2/3 is not

The economic burden of preterm and low birth-weight (LBW) births

Inpatient Hospitalization Costs of LBW Births in Tennessee 2005


< 500g	$126,015
500g to 999g	$76,177
1000g to 1499g	$34,688	Very LBW
1500g to 1999g	$14,520	LBW 1
2000g to 2499g	$5,853	LBW 2

Note: This does not include costs of visits to doctor's offices, costs of drugs at home, etc. How many years?

📄 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

The Business Case for Promoting Healthy Pregnancy

page 10

📄 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki * 📄 Download the Referenced study from VitaminDWiki * The very high costs were due to including exteremly low birth weights (< 1,250 gram) **---

Wikipedia chart on Low Birth Weight. Small for Gestational Age, Premature, etc

Costs of Low Birth Weight (2005)

* 📄 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki *---

March of Dimes LBW - 2013

Note: Employ* er costs do not include employ ee costs such as co-pay, time off from work, 📄 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki *---

LBW vs Race

Child Health USA 2011

LBW for countries vs year

[

Health at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators LBW](http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/healthglance-2011-en/01/08/index.html;jsessionid=117v9v0vev51t.x-oecd-live-02?contentType=&itemId;=/content/chapter/healthglance-2011-11-en&containerItemId;=%2Fcontent%2Fchapter%2Fhealthglance-2011-11-en&accessItemIds;=/content/book/healthglance-2011-en&mimeType;=text/html&csp=dfbc2046f3cf1de3b915e0ab258babc4)

LBW vs country - 2011

Starting behind: Low birth weight in the United States Brookings

Smoking while pregnant* Smoking while pregnant: are the problems due to low vitamin D – July 2013 * CBS story did not mention vitamin D but has the following risk factors *Miscarriage** (known to be associated with low vitamin D) * Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (known to be associated with low vitamin D) * mental health problems for children: ADHD, autism (known to be associated with low vitamin D) * premature birth, (known to be associated with low vitamin D) * cleft lip or palate (excess vitamin A or lack of folic)

Smoking reduces vitamin D - many studies has the following** It appears that taking Vitamin D while smoking will__

Decrease the incidence of the many health problems associated with smoking - even lung cancer
Decrease the desire to smoke

Lower Birth Weight if Smoke and/or Non-white

Smoking: Effects on Mothers and Babies in West Virginia - 1989-1998