ArticleBMJ open2016
Vitamin B12 status in women of childbearing age in the UK and its relationship with national nutrient intake guidelines: results from two National Diet and Nutrition Surveys.
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deficiency of B vitamins in women of childbearing age, pregnant, and lactating women in Brazil: a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Vitamin BEuropean journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Choline and Its Companions: Inter-Related Roles of Choline and B Vitamins in Fetal Development and Offspring Health.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Vitamin BNutrients · 2026Review
- Vitamin BClinical nutrition ESPEN · 2025Observational
- Dietary nutrients during gestation cause obesity and related metabolic changes by altering DNA methylation in the offspring.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Review
- Low Levels of Serum Total Vitamin B12 Are Associated with Worse Metabolic Phenotype in a Large Population of Children, Adolescents and Young Adults, from Underweight to Severe Obesity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Nutritional Modulation of Associations between Prenatal Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants and Childhood Obesity: A Prospective Cohort Study.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
- Development of a nutrition screening tool to identify need for dietetic intervention in female infertility.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2023Review
- Maternal Vitamin BNutrients · 2022Article
- Elevated homocysteine activates unfolded protein responses and causes aberrant trophoblast differentiation and mouse blastocyst development.Physiological reports · 2022Article
- Vitamin B12 and Folate Markers Are Associated with Insulin Resistance During the Third Trimester of Pregnancy in South Asian Women, Living in the United Kingdom, with Gestational Diabetes and Normal Glucose Tolerance.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Swiss Cohort & Biobank - The White Paper.Public health reviews · 2022Article
- Association of maternal vitamin BDiabetologia · 2021Article
- The Relationship Between Folate, Vitamin B12 and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus With Proposed Mechanisms and Foetal Implications.Journal of family & reproductive health · 2021Review
- Article
- Evaluating the Diagnostic Value of a Combined Indicator of Vitamin BFrontiers in nutrition · 2021Article
- Prevalence and Indicators of Vitamin B12 Insufficiency among Young Women of Childbearing Age.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Low Serum Vitamin B12 Levels Are Associated with Adverse Lipid Profiles in Apparently Healthy Young Saudi Women.Nutrients · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo assess serum B12, folate and the associated homocysteine (Hcy) levels among women of childbearing age in the UK and examine their association with dietary intake in relation to the UK Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNIs) for B12 and folate.
designCross-sectional study.
settingData from two publicly available National Diet and Nutrition Surveys (NDNS 2000/2001 and 2008/2012) were used. These were population-based surveys of randomly selected samples of adults which were carried out in their households.
participantsWomen of childbearing age (aged 19-39 years), representative of the UK population. Those who were pregnant or breastfeeding were excluded. OUTCOME MEASURES: The associations between micronutrient intakes and blood levels of B12, folate and Hcy were assessed by correlation and stepwise linear regression. B12 intake was divided into quintiles and plotted against blood B12 and Hcy concentrations to determine the threshold of any associations.
results299 women from the first NDNS cohort had complete intake and biomarker data. The prevalence of serum vitamin B12 (≤150 pmol/L) and serum folate (≤10 nmol/L) deficiency and hyperhomocysteinemia (≥12 µmol/L) was 12.4%, 6.4% and 21.2%, respectively, despite seemingly adequate B12 intakes (median 3.8 μg/day, 96% consumed more than the UK RNI of 1.5 μg/day). B12 concentrations increased across all quintiles of intake with serum levels in quintiles 4 and 5 (median intake 4.9 and 7.1 μg/day, respectively) significantly higher than quintile 1. However, Hcy concentrations levelled off between quintiles 4 and 5. Comparison of micronutrient intake between the two surveys found that folate intake has reduced in the more recent cohort.
conclusionsThe UK RNI for B12 intake should be increased for women of childbearing age with intakes of around 5-7 μg/day likely to be associated with stable biomarker levels. B12 levels should also be measured in women preconceptionally or in early pregnancy given the high rates of deficiency.
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