However, people with a folic acid prescription were diagnosed with COVID-19 infections at a higher rate (5.99 percent) and had a much higher COVID-19 mortality rate (15.97 percent) than the control group.
“Our findings could have implications for patients who take supplementary folate to prevent complications of other pharmacological therapies,” said Angelo L. Gaffo, co-senior author and an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Although taking folate in these cases is clearly indicated, clinicians should be cautious about excessive folate intake. Of course, our results will require replication.”
The researchers note that due to the makeup of the UK BioBank data, the current findings are limited to people 45 years of age and older who are predominantly from White European ethnicities of the UK population.