Bibliographic information
GuidelineWHO recommendations on adolescent health: guidelines approved by the WHO guidelines review committee
Year of Publication2017
Issuing InstitutionWorld Health Organization
Recommendation
New
The above red blood cell folate threshold (400 ng/mL (906 nmol/L)) can be used as an indicator of folate insufficiency in women of reproductive age
Recommended in favor
Strong
Certainty of evidence
Low
Notes and Remarks
Because low folate concentrations cannot explain all cases of NTDs, this threshold cannot predict the individual risk of having a NTD-affected pregnancy and thus it is only useful at the population level