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Nutritional Epidemiology

Geographical, Seasonal and Gender Differences in Folate Status among Chinese Adults¹

Ling Hao^*, Jing Ma^,2, Meir J. Stampfer^,**, Aiguo Ren^*, Yihua Tian^*, Yi Tang^*, Walter C. Willett^,** and Zhu Li^*

^* Institute of Reproductive and Child Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115; and ^** Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115

²To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jing.ma{at}channing.harvard.edu.

Low blood folate concentrations have been associated with cardiovascular disease, neural tube defects and selected cancers, but little is known about folate status in Chinese adults. In a cross-sectional study we measured the plasma and red blood cell folate concentrations in 2422 Chinese men and women aged 35 to 64 y, living in the North and South of China, who provided blood samples either in March or September of 2001. The geometric mean concentrations of plasma and red blood cell folate were lower among Northerners than Southerners (adjusted geometric means, 8.4 and 502, and 16.7 and 811 nmol/L, respectively) controlling for age, gender, season (spring and fall), area (urban and rural), BMI, multivitamin use, alcohol intake and current smoking status. We estimated that 40% of the Northerners and 6% of the Southerners had plasma folate concentrations lower than the 6.8 nmol/L (3 µg/L), and 30% of the Northerners and 4% of the Southerners had red blood cell folate comcentrations lower than the 363 nmol/L (160 µg/L), levels used to define folate deficiency. Within each region, men had lower plasma folate concentrations than women (6.9 versus 9.8 nmol/L in the North, and 14.5 versus 19.6 nmol/L in the South). In men, current smokers had a higher risk of folate deficiency compared with nonsmokers [adjusted odds ratios, 1.9 (95% CI, 1.4–2.6) for plasma folate deficiency and 2.5 (95% CI, 1.7–3.6) for red blood cell folate deficiency (P < 0.001)]. Our findings suggest that a large proportion of Chinese adults have a low folate status, especially those living in northern China where 60% of the men are plasma folate deficient in the spring. Further studies are needed to elucidate the factors that influence folate concentrations among middle-aged Chinese and to evaluate possible intervention strategies.

KEY WORDS: • folate • Chinese adults • gender • season • geographic difference • smoking

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