There are two types of eyewitness-identification procedures: showups and lineups. Although the false-identification rate of showups was considered to be higher than that of lineups, experimental research has not always supported the superiority of lineups. Further, suggestibility of showups is believed to produce higher false-identification rates, but no experimental study has manipulated sugge...

BACKGROUND Poor adherence to micronutrient supplementation often limits the effectiveness of public health programs. While predictors of adherence to micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy are well documented, information on adherence to preconception supplements is scarce. The objective of this study was to describe the predictors of adherence to preconception and prenatal micronutrien...

In January 2015, the US Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative (PCHHC) established a new national vision that all women and men of reproductive age will achieve optimal health and wellness, fostering a healthy life course for them and any children they may have. Achieving this vision presents both challenges and opportunities. This manuscript describes the reasons why the US needs to p...

China has a strong need and strong reasons to conduct a large-scale birth cohort study. Environmental pollution is a serious problem in some parts of the country. Infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, childhood asthma, childhood obesity, and sexual prematurity have all reportedly increased in recent years, but the causes remain elusive. With fewer children in each family, child health is oft...

BACKGROUND Improving the quality of healthcare services is considered as the main strategy to improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes. Providing appropriate healthcare for mothers and their newborn children is facilitated significantly by considering the mothers' health and welfare before pregnancy occurs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the quality of preconception care p...

Women with diabetes need to plan for pregnancy if they are to reduce their risk of poor pregnancy outcome. While care providers have focused on setting up specialist pre-pregnancy planning clinics to help women prepare for pregnancy, the majority of women do not attend, entering pregnancy unprepared. A major barrier to accessing this care, and a consequence of poor preconception counselling, is...

BACKGROUND Adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) can be increased by preconception risk factors and lifestyles.We measured the prevalence of preconception risk factors for APOs in a population of Italian women of childbearing age enrolled in a web-based study. METHODS Participants were enrolled through a web platform (http://www.mammainforma.it). After enrollment, participants filled in a questio...

OBJECTIVE Preconception sex selection for nonmedical reasons raises important moral, legal, and social issues. The main concern is based upon the assumption that a widely available service for sex selection will lead to a socially disruptive imbalance of the sexes. For a severe sex ratio distortion to occur, however, at least two conditions have to be met. First, there must be a significant pre...

BACKGROUND Fasting plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) decreases during pregnancy. Previous reports suggested that this is due to folic acid supplementation, hemodilution, or a decrease in albumin. However, these hypotheses have not been tested in a longitudinal study. OBJECTIVE We investigated the relation between pregnancy-related physiologic changes and tHcy in a group of healthy women who we...