Vitamin B12 status of people living in Canada: Results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey 2012-2019.

BackgroundB12 is an essential vitamin found in foods of animal origin, fortified foods, and supplements. Surveillance of B12 status in Canada is prioritized to support evaluation and monitoring of public policy, but national biomonitoring results have not been published since 2007-2009.ObjectiveTo describe the B12 status of people in Canada using serum B12 (status indicator) and plasma homocysteine (functional indicator), individually and combined as a two-component cB12 (2cB12) indicator.MethodsWe combined data for non-pregnant participants (n=21,760) from cycles 3-6 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (2012-2019), a nationally representative survey of the household population aged 3-79. Serum B12 was measured in cycles 3-6 while plasma homocysteine was available in cycles 5-6 only. We used population-weighted data to calculate geometric means and proportions within adequacy thresholds for these indicators stratified by age and sex. We examined associations between sociodemographic and dietary factors with serum B12 status among adults and children using logistic regression.ResultsCompared to adults, lower proportions of children had serum B12 in the deficient (