Folate nutrition in the elderly.

The consensus of this panel is that average dietary intake of folate in the free-living elderly population is probably adequate in most. Certainly more good data are needed; in addition, safe and reasonable dietary goals for folate intake are required. However, patients who have diseases requiring hospitalization or conditions for which institutionalization are required are obviously at greater risk. In addition, there is some evidence that the elderly poor in the US may be at greater risk of deficiency. Similarly, the evidence for folate deficiency based on blood assay data would seem to focus on the lower socioeconomic (largely Black and Hispanic) populations in addition to the hospitalized and institutionalized elderly. An additional factor in the genesis of folate deficiency among the aged is the factor of alcohol use which probably represents the single most important risk factor in folate deficiency among the elderly as well as among the nonelderly population. Although certain drugs such as anticonvulsants and sulfasalazine, may interfere with folate absorption or utilization, the number of elderly patients who are taking these drugs is relatively small and therefore this factor is not considered to be a major contributor to the problem of folate deficiency in the elderly. The question of folate malabsorption in the elderly has been examined. It is our conclusion that disease in the elderly population including gastric surgery and intestinal malabsorption, etc can certainly interfere with folate absorption but these problems are not widespread among the elderly population. There is only limited evidence that the physiological process of aging influences the intestinal absorption of folate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)