Prevalence Of Hyperhomocyste1nemia Among White, Black And Mexican Elderly Over 60 Years Of Age In The Us: Nhanes Id-Phase Two

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Elevated serum homocysteine level is the risk factor of the development of cardiovascular diseases. Folate and vitamin BI2 deficiencies are associated with hyperhomocysteinemia for these vitamins being the cofactors in the remethylation reaction of homocysteine to methionine. Data of 1,822 elderly aged over 60 years from NHANES Ill-Phase Two, who had complete records of 24-hour dietary recall, serum concentrations of homocysteine, folate, vitamin B12 and RBC folate were analyzed to study the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia and its association with folate and vitamin B12 status. SUDAAN statistical software was used and sample was grouped into six experimental groups; White male (WM), White female (WF), Black male (BM), Black female (BF), Mexican male (MM) and Mexican female (MF) to study the ethnicity and gender differences. For the folate intake, WF had the lowest intake with 57.12% consuming less than 200ug/d followed by BM, MF, BF, MM, and WM. MM had the highest percentage (9.04%) of low serum folate level (<2.6ng/ml) followed by BM (7.00%), BF (5.48%), MF (5.17%). WM (335%) and WF (1.81%), but BM had the highest percentage (14.1%) of low RBC folate (<102.6ng/ml). For the vitamin B12 intake, BF had the lowest intake with 58.96% consuming less than 2.4ug/d. For the serum B12, WM showed the highest percentage (3.60%) of the deficient level (<165pg/ml). For the hyperhomocysteinemia, BM had the highest prevalence (16.57%) of having levels higher than cutoff value of 16.4nmol/ml followed by WM (14.62%), MM (13.57%), BF (11.56%), WF (10.22%) and MF (5.26%). This study showed BM had the highest prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia which is associated with the low serum and RBC folate levels. All three ethnic male groups had higher prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia than all female groups.