Costs of Pregnancy much reduced by Vitamin D

:: 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