Consumo alimentar e concentra？？es intra-eritrocitárias de folato em mulheres do Recife, Nordeste do Brasil

folate food intake and red blood cell folate concentrations were assess in women from recife, northeast brazil. following a two stages sampling procedure, a cross-sectional study was carried out involving 360 women, between 15-45y, attending in nine health care public unit in 2007-2008. folate intake was evaluated by a quantitative food frequency questionnaire, and compared with the values of the dietary reference intakes- dri？s. folate status was evaluated by red blood cell folate concentrations. geometric mean of folate intake was 627.1[ic95%600.4-655.0] μg/day. the frequency of women at risk for folate intake below the recommendation was 16.0% for adolescents (<330μg/ day) and 6.3% for young adult (<320μg/ day). the prevalence of women whose consumption exceeds the maximum tolerable intake was 48.0% (> 800μg/ day) and 13.7% (> 1000μg/ day) for adolescents and adults, respectively. the mean of red blood cell folate concentrations was 1797.8 ± 357.1nmol/l. folate rich-food intake did not show any correlation with red blood cell folate concentrations (r= 0.058 and p= 0.274). higher red blood cell folate concentrations were observed in adult young women (p=0.004) and among those with income up to two minimum wages (p=0.042). folate rich-food intake as well as red blood cell folate concentrations among women from recife were above the international recommendations.