Prevalence and indicators of vitamin B12 insufficiency among young women of childbearing age

Al-Musharaf, S, McTernan, PG ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9023-0261, Hussain, SD, Aleisa, KA, Alnaami, AM, Wani, K, Saravanan, P and Al-Daghri, N, 2021. Prevalence and indicators of vitamin B12 insufficiency among young women of childbearing age. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (1): 1. ISSN 1661-7827

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Abstract

Vitamin B12 insufficiency is a global health issue among women of childbearing age, yet few studies have investigated its prevalence and risk factors among healthy Middle Eastern populations. This cross-sectional study included 346 Saudi women aged 19–30 years and enrolled at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A series of questionnaires were administered to record the study participants’ sociodemographic status, medical history, dietary intake, and physical activity. Participants’ anthropometric data were also recorded and their fasting blood samples were analyzed. The rate of vitamin B12 insufficiency (≤220 pmol/L) was approximately 6% among the study participants. After adjusting for confounding factors, it was observed that the risk factors for vitamin B12 insufficiency included daily sitting time ≥ 7 h, low income (<10,000 Saudi riyal) and increasing age. The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin B12 (>2.4 mcg/day) has been shown to confer reasonable protection against vitamin B12 insufficiency. These study findings highlight that a combination of increased physical activity and dietary vitamin B12 intake above the current recommended dietary allowance may help improve the serum vitamin B12 levels of young women of childbearing age, especially those with a low socioeconomic status. Timely detection and protection against vitamin B12 insufficiency in this subpopulation are important to prevent maternal and fetal health risks.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Creators:	Al-Musharaf, S., McTernan, P.G., Hussain, S.D., Aleisa, K.A., Alnaami, A.M., Wani, K., Saravanan, P. and Al-Daghri, N.
Publisher:	MDPI
Date:	2021
Volume:	18
Number:	1
ISSN:	1661-7827
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3390/ijerph18010001 DOI 1410916 Other
Rights:	Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	25 Feb 2021 11:50
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:06
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/42386

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