Demographic characteristics of the study population
The study recruited 281 participants from Aqaba city; including 200 females (71.2 %) and 81 males (28.8 %). The ages ranged between 0 and 80 years with a mean age of 30.01±13.5 (31.9±16.49 for males and 29.3±12.05 for females), where the age group between 0-39 years was more prominent 217(77.2%) as compared to the age group ≥40 years 64(22.8%). The mean of B12 for the study population was 277.34±103.70 pg/mL.
The cutoff value of vitamin B12 level was set at 200 pg/mL, where the individuals with vitamin B12 level less than 200 pg/mL were categorized as deficient. Based on this categorization the results showed that 212 (75.4%) of participants had a normal B12 level while 69 (24.6%) of them had a B12 deficiency. According to the gender groups, the females reported a significantly higher frequency of vitamin B12 deficiency (29.0%) compared to the male group (13.6%). In addition, the mean of Hb level for participants was 12.66±1.78 whereas the mean of RBC for participants was 4.54±0.50 as shown in table 1.