Research paper
Oral folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplementation to prevent cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms--the Beyond Ageing Project: a randomized controlled trial.
Study answer
What this study found
Daily folic acid plus vitamin B-12 improved overall cognitive performance and memory over 24 months compared with placebo, but did not improve other cognitive domains. The omnibus time-by-intervention effect for TICS-M total score was significant (F 2,788.4 = 5.26, P = 0.005), and TICS-M total score increased more from baseline to 24 months in the supplement group than placebo (P = 0.032, effect size = 0.17). Immediate recall also improved more (P = 0.046, effect size = 0.15), as did delayed recall (P = 0.013, effect size = 0.18); the 12-month comparison was not significant (P = 0.283).…
- Study & population
- Randomized controlled factorial trial in community-dwelling adults aged 60 to 74 years with elevated psychological distress and without dementia, recruited in Australia.
- Intervention
- Daily oral folic acid plus vitamin B-12 was given as one tablet containing 400 μg folic acid and 100 μg vitamin B-12 for 24 months.
- Key limitation
- Per-arm sample size was not reported, and sex and other demographic details were limited.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Evidence remains unclear as to whether folic acid (FA) and vitamin B-12 supplementation is effective in reducing depressive symptoms. OBJECTIVES The objective was to determine whether oral FA + vitamin B-12 supplementation prevented cognit…