Studies on the effect of folic acid supplement on folate and vitamin B12 status in children.

ABSTRACT

The effect of folic acid supplement (15 mg folic acid per day) for 5 weeks was studied on a group of 5 children aged 8-12 years who were admitted to hospital. The result was compared to a control group of 5 children who were given a placebo. After supplementation, both serum and red cell folate levels in the experimental group significantly increased, i.e., 15 fold (82.0 ng/ml) and 4 fold (880 ng/ml), respectively. Serum UFBP decreased considerably while TFBP showed no significant alteration which resulted in the elevation of the % saturation to its maximum value. These findings indicated that the supplementary folic acid not only increased both serum and red cell folate levels and saturated nearly all serum UFBP but also elevated the % saturation markedly. There were no definite changes of serum vitamin B12, UBBC, TBBC and TC levels of the experimental group from those of the control group. There were slightly but not significantly increased blood haemoglobin and haematocrit levels in both groups of children. This indicated that folic acid supplement had no definite effect on vitamin B12 and haematological findings in this study.