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. 2014 Nov 12;9(11):e112586.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112586. eCollection 2014.

The status of vitamin B12 and folate among Chinese women: a population-based cross-sectional study in northwest China

Shaonong Dang  1 , Hong Yan  1 , Lingxia Zeng  1 , Quanli Wang  1 , Qiang Li  1 , Shengbin Xiao  1 , Xiaojing Fan  1
Affiliations

The status of vitamin B12 and folate among Chinese women: a population-based cross-sectional study in northwest China

Shaonong Dang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess the status of the vitamin B12 and folate of Chinese women living in northwest China.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2008 among Chinese women aged 10-49 years living in Shaanxi province of northwest China. A stratified multistage random sampling method was adopted to obtain a sample of 1170 women. The women were interviewed for collection of their background information and their plasma vitamin B12 and folate were measured with the immunoassay method. The status of both vitamins was evaluated and the prevalence of deficiency was estimated.

Results: The median value of the women was 214.5 pg/mL for vitamin B12 and 4.6 ng/mL for folate. The urban women had a significantly higher vitamin B12 (254.1 vs. 195.9 pg/mL) but lower folate (4.4 vs. 4.7 ng/mL) than rural women. Total prevalence of deficiency was 45.5% (95% CI: 42.6% ∼ 48.4%) for vitamin B12 and 14.7% (95% CI: 12.6% ∼ 16.8%) for folate. About 36% of women presented vitamin B12 deficiency alone, 5.2% belonged to folate deficiency alone and 9.5% was combined deficiency in both vitamins. More than 25% of the women were in marginal vitamin B12 status (200-299 pg/mL) and 60% in marginal status of folate (3-6 ng/mL). About 75.2% of rural women with folate deficiency were deficient in vitamin B12 and 46% for urban women. Quantile regression model found decreasing coefficient of folate status across 73 different quantiles of vitamin B12, which indicated that the women with folate deficiency had lower vitamin B12 significantly compared with those with no deficiency.

Conclusions: The deficiency of vitamin B12 and folate is still prevalent among the Chinese women in northwest China. Vitamin B12 deficiency could be more serious and the improvement of poor vitamin B12 status should be invoked when practicing the supplementation of folate against the neural tube defects in northwest China.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of vitamin B12 and folate by age among Chinese women in Shaanxi province.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Prevalence of deficiency in vitamin B12 and folate among Chinese women in Shaanxi province.
Figure 3
Figure 3. The relationship between the vitamin B12 and folate among Chinese women in Shaanxi province.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Quantile regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates by residence (urban vs rural): folate deficiency and vitamin B12.
Circles represent quantile regression estimates, and the shaded areas around the quantile regression estimates were the 95% confidence intervals. The dashed line was OLS estimate, and the dash-dotted lines showed the OLS 95% confidence interval. Estimates shown here compared folate deficiency with no-deficiency.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 81230016, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn), Beijing, China, and the Science and Technology Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2006K08-G10(3), http://www.sninfo.gov.cn). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.