Dietary profile of folate intake in long-term post-stroke patients

The present study was undertaken to investigate folate dietary practice in long-term post-stroke survivors. Patients (n = 40) with ischemic stroke at a median interval of 3 years were recruited and reference values of 40 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals were obtained. Based on the data collected from 24-hour recalls and folate food frequency questionnaire, the recent and usual intakes of food folate in post-stroke patients were significantly lower than those in healthy references. Approximately 55% of the post-stroke patients have the usual folate intake below 400 μg/d as compared with 17% of healthy references. Low rate of consumption frequency and amounts for vegetable with high folate density attributed to lower food folate intakes of post-stroke patients as compared with healthy references. For the supplement users, the discrepancy of folate intake between 2 groups diminished. Taken together, our data demonstrate that post-stroke subjects as a whole acquired significantly less folate from food. Either by a dietary modification to include folate-rich vegetables or by folate supplements could long-term post-stroke survivors improve their folate intake.