Samar Abd-El Mohsen Ali¹, Maged Ossama Aly^1,

Background: Folate is a key nutrient that plays a major role in promoting health, prevention of neural tube defects in infants, and reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases among adults and the elderly. Objective: The aim was to assess the dietary folate status among the Egyptian adults and its relation to some laboratory parameters. Subjects: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 apparently healthy Alexandria University employees of both sexes. Data was collected for socio-economic characteristics and dietary intake was assessed by a 24-h recall method. Blood samples were collected from participants and serum folate was analyzed using a microbiological assay, while High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used for the determination of homocysteine. Results: The mean dietary folate intake of participants was 257.6 ± 126.9 µg/day with higher intake among males than females. Overall mean serum folate level was 9.7 ± 5.7 nmol/l and folate deficiency identified among 21% of participants. The mean homocysteine level of the participants was 12.8 ± 4.8 µmol/l and hyperhomocysteinemia was present in 54% of the whole sample. Women in childbearing age had a higher mean dietary folate intake than that in older females (252.9± 135.6 vs. 234.5± 91.3µg/day respectively) and only 15.1% of them had adequate folate intake. Conclusions: The highest percentage of participants had folate intake lower than RDA. Favorable serum folate was detected in most of the participants while more than half of participants had hyperhomocysteinemia.

folate, homocysteine, adults, childbearing age women, HPLC, Egypt