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Folate Deficiency in Geriatric Patients

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Folates and Cobalamins

Abstract

The elderly are extremely susceptible to nutritional deficiencies, especially vitamin deficiencies. Among these, folate deficiency is associated with the highest rate of consequences, both because of the considerable number of patients concerned, and because of the various nonspecific clinical and humoral disorders that it can cause. Studies conducted in the 1970s established the significance of this deficiency and its role in neuropsychiatric disorders that had erroneously been ascribed to the process of ageing. While folate deficiency is found in 6%-46% of those over 60 years of age, living at home, and in good health [17, 19, 35, 42], the prevalence increases in the institutionalized, among whom it has been estimated at 16%–80% (Table 1) [3, 19, 26, 36, 43].

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Authors
  1. P. Brocker
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  2. J. C. Lods
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division d’Hématologie et d’Oncologie médicale, Hôpital Royal Victoria et Département de Médecine interne et de Physiologie, Université McGill, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Bernard A. Cooper

  2. Laboratoire d’Hématologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor et Faculté de Médecine, 94010, Créteil, France

    Jacqueline A. Zittoun

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Brocker, P., Lods, J.C. (1989). Folate Deficiency in Geriatric Patients. In: Cooper, B.A., Zittoun, J.A. (eds) Folates and Cobalamins. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74364-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74364-1_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-50653-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74364-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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