Publications by authors named "Nirah Fisher"
Objective: In Israel, a national survey was conducted in order to assess the efficacy of the ongoing national folic acid (FA) campaign launched in 2000. The Ministry of Health had issued official guidelines in August 2000 recommending daily FA supplementation for all childbearing age women.
Methods: In 2005, structured interviews of pregnant and postpartum women were conducted by the nursing staff of the Maternal Child Health Clinics administered by the Public Health Service.
Objective: To assess the effect of gestational perchlorate exposure through drinking water on neonatal thyroxine (T(4)).
Design: T(4) values were compared among newborns in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, whose mothers resided in suburbs where drinking water contained perchlorate < or = 340 microg/L (very high exposure, n = 97), 42-94 microg/L (high exposure, n = 216), and < 3 microg/L (low exposure, n = 843). In the very high and high exposure areas, T(4) values in newborns whose mothers drank tap water exclusively (as determined by a telephone interview) were analyzed as a subset.
Background: Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is a significant health risk to the developing fetus. In order to develop and implement an appropriate preconceptional and prenatal smoking cessation program a national pregnancy risk survey was done.
Methods: The survey was conducted through the Public Health Service's, Mother and Child Health Clinics (MCHC).
Background: To decrease the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs), the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) issued guidelines in August 2000 recommending daily folic acid (FA) supplementation for women in their childbearing age, and concurrently launched a national FA campaign. Campaign effects were assessed by comparing the results of a survey done in 2002 with a baseline survey done in June 2000.
Methods: Both surveys were done within the network of the Public Health Services' Mother and Child Health Clinics (MCHC).