TABLE 1.

Usual total self-reported dietary intake estimates for folate and folic acid and the prevalence of intakes with regard to the DRI guidelines among US adults by sex and age group, 2011–2012¹

		Folate		Folic acid
Sex/age groups	n	Value, DFEs	Less than the EAR, %	Value, μg	Above the UL, %
All participants, y
≥19	4878	763 ± 7	6.8 ± 0.9	314 ± 4	1.6 ± 0.2
19–30	1083	707 ± 19	6.5 ± 1.1	292 ± 9	1.2 ± 0.4
31–50	1587	745 ± 12	7.0 ± 0.9	302 ± 8	1.3 ± 0.4
51–70	1559	797 ± 16	6.1 ± 1.1	322 ± 6	1.7 ± 0.4
≥71	649	847 ± 20	7.7 ± 1.3	375 ± 12	2.7 ± 0.5
P-trend (age)		0.0002	0.2537	0.005	<0.0001
Men, y
≥19	2469	817 ± 132	3.3 ± 0.52	326 ± 73	1.4 ± 0.4
19–30	575	767 ± 212	3.2 ± 0.93	308 ± 112	0.9 ± 0.5
31–50	798	789 ± 172	3.1 ± 0.63	305 ± 92	0.6 ± 0.2
51–70	769	857 ± 382	3.4 ± 0.63	337 ± 192	2.1 ± 0.9
≥71	327	943 ± 522	4.4 ± 1.03	422 ± 323	3.5 ± 0.93
P-trend (age)		0.0015	0.3025	0.0018	<0.0001
Women, y
≥19	2409	711 ± 13	10.1 ± 1.7	302 ± 6	1.6 ± 0.2
19–30	508	635 ± 35	10.8 ± 2.0	274 ± 17	1.5 ± 0.5
31–50	789	702 ± 24	11.1 ± 1.7	299 ± 14	2.1 ± 0.6
51–70	790	747 ± 21	8.7 ± 1.9	308 ± 12	1.3 ± 0.4
≥71	322	770 ± 21	10.0 ± 2.1	341 ± 12	1.9 ± 0.7
P-trend (age)		0.0006	0.1398	0.0065	0.2531

¹Values are means or percentages ± SEs unless otherwise indicated. The National Cancer Institute method was used to estimate the self-reported total usual folate and folic acid intake distributions and compliance with the DRI guidelines. SEs were estimated with the Taylor series linearization. Trends by age group and sex comparisons were tested with linear contrasts. DFE, dietary folate equivalent; DRI, Dietary Reference Intake; EAR, Estimated Average Requirement; UL, Tolerable Upper Intake Level.

^2,3Different from women: ²P < 0.001, ³P < 0.01.