Cost effectiveness of vitamin c supplementation for pregnant smokers to improve offspring lung function at birth and reduce childhood wheeze/asthma

Objective:to determine the implications of supplemental vitamin c for pregnant tobacco smokers and its effects on the prevalence of pediatric asthma, asthma-related mortality, and associated costs.study design:a decision-analytic model built via treeage compared the outcome of asthma in a theoretical annual cohort of 480,000 children born to pregnant smokers through 18 years of life. vitamin c supplementation (500 mg/day) with a standard prenatal vitamin was compared to a prenatal vitamin (60 mg/day). model inputs were derived from the literature. deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses assessed the impact of assumptions.result:additional vitamin c during pregnancy would prevent 1637 cases of asthma at the age of 18 per birth cohort of pregnant smokers. vitamin c would reduce asthma-related childhood deaths and save $31,420,800 in societal costs over 18 years per birth cohort.conclusion:vitamin c supplementation in pregnant smokers is a safe and inexpensive intervention that may reduce the economic burden of pediatric asthma.