Plasma Choline Concentration of Some Korean Young Adults and Correlation with Dietary Choline Intake

The purpose of this study is to investigate the concentration of plasma choline of Korean and to clarify the relationship between plasma choline concentration and choline intake. Plasma choline concentration of 30 young adults (15 males, 15 females) aged 20 - 30 years living in Deajeon metropolitan city are analyzed and their dietary choline intake. Choline content of one day meal was directly analyzed with the use of enzymatic method. Plasma choline concentration from more than 12 hr fasting blood was analyzed by using HPLC-MS. Choline intakes of male subjects were in the range of 253.51 - 1724.14 mg and those of female subjects were in the range of 240.85 - 938.06 mg. Mean intakes of choline were 634.53+/-353.68 mg in male subjects and 473.99+/-183.76 mg in female subjects. Plasma choline concentration of total subjects was in the range of 5.08 - 14.01 micro mol/L. Mean plasma choline concentration was 9.19+/-2.05 micro mol/L in male subjects and 8.11+/-1.70 micro mol/L in female subjects. Plasma choline concentration did not show significant correlation with choline intake in male and total subjects, but showed positive correlation with choline intake in female subjects (p<0.05). This result shows that more studies on large scaled samples are needed.

Estimation of Dietary Choline Intake of Korean by Gender, Age and Region

This study was conducted to estimate dietary choline intake of Koreans according to gender, age and region by using the data on per capita food intake in 1998 and 2001 and the data on choline contents of foods customarily eaten by Koreans. Sixty-four and 97 kinds of food items were used for the estimation of choline intake in 1998 and 2001, respectively. And these corresponded to approximately 90% of the total amount of food intake and energy intake. Based on these food items and choline content, per capita choline intake of Koreans was estimated to be 623.0 mg and 602.4 mg in 1998 and 2001 respectively : 687.2 mg and 659.1 mg in 1998 and 2001 for male : 560.2 mg and 551.0 mg in 1998 and 2001 for female. While the number of foods considered in estimation was higher in 2001 than 1998, choline intake was lower in 2001. The estimated per capita choline intake of male population was higher than that of female population by 108 - 127 mg, possibly due to the difference in total amount of food intake. The age group with the highest choline intake was different between 2 time points. Although adolescents of 13 - 19 years showed the highest intake (712.0 mg) in 1998, mid-aged adults of 30 - 49 years showed the highest choline intake (662.2 mg) followed by adolescents (645.7 mg) in 2001. In regional comparison, choline intake of the rural population (588.7 mg and 588.3 mg in 1998 and 2001 respectively) was lower than that of population in small to medium-size cities (625.1 mg and 603.9 mg) or in metropolitan cities (637.7 mg and 602.8 mg). This result revealed that per capita choline intake of the Korean population falls within the adequate range with some differences by age, sex and residing area.