• Am. J. Clin. Nutr. · Nov 2009

    Serum vitamin C and the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency in the United States: 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

    • Rosemary L Schleicher, Margaret D Carroll, Earl S Ford, and David A Lacher.
    • Division of Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA. rschleicher@cdc.gov
    • Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2009 Nov 1; 90 (5): 1252-63.

    BackgroundVitamin C (ascorbic acid) may be the most important water-soluble antioxidant in human plasma. In the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988-1994), approximately 13% of the US population was vitamin C deficient (serum concentrations <11.4 micromol/L).ObjectiveThe aim was to determine the most current distribution of serum vitamin C concentrations in the United States and the prevalence of deficiency in selected subgroups.DesignSerum concentrations of total vitamin C were measured in 7277 noninstitutionalized civilians aged > or =6 y during the cross-sectional, nationally representative NHANES 2003-2004. The prevalence of deficiency was compared with results from NHANES III.ResultsThe overall age-adjusted mean from the square-root transformed (SM) concentration was 51.4 micromol/L (95% CI: 48.4, 54.6). The highest concentrations were found in children and older persons. Within each race-ethnic group, women had higher concentrations than did men (P < 0.05). Mean concentrations of adult smokers were one-third lower than those of nonsmokers (SM: 35.2 compared with 50.7 micromol/L and 38.6 compared with 58.0 micromol/L in men and women, respectively). The overall prevalence (+/-SE) of age-adjusted vitamin C deficiency was 7.1 +/- 0.9%. Mean vitamin C concentrations increased (P < 0.05) and the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency decreased (P < 0.01) with increasing socioeconomic status. Recent vitamin C supplement use or adequate dietary intake decreased the risk of vitamin C deficiency (P < 0.05).ConclusionsIn NHANES 2003-2004, vitamin C status improved, and the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency was significantly lower than that during NHANES III, but smokers and low-income persons were among those at increased risk of deficiency.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…