THE CLINICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL EFFECTS OF VITAMIN-C SUPPLEMENTATION IN SHORT-STAY HOSPITALIZED GERIATRIC-PATIENTS
- 1 January 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Vol. 54 (1) , 65-74
Abstract
A double-blind placebo trial was undertaken on 199 elderly patients admitted to an acute geriatric assessment ward. Clinical and biochemical assessment was made on admission (0) and at 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 wk (after admission). Patients (94) were supplemented with vitamin C (200 mg/day) and 105 had placebo tablets. Biochemical assessment included estimations of plasma and leukocyte (buffy layer) vitamin C, plasma folate, vitamin B12, cortisol and total white cell count. Plasma and leukocyte vitamin C levels remained low for several weeks in a substantial proportion of the non-supplemented patients, whereas low levels were virtually eliminated in the supplemented group. The leukocyte vitamin C levels may give some indication of prognosis in this category of patients (i.e., acute geriatric admissions) as evidenced by: the significantly higher mortality rate during the trial period of patients who started with low initial leukocyte vitamin C levels compared with those starting with higher levels, despite similar mean initial severity of illness scores between the 2 groups; and the marked trend, among placebo subjects, for those commencing the study with higher leukocyte vitamin C levels to fare better, in terms of progression to well, than those starting with low levels. Among subjects starting with low leukocyte vitamin C levels, there was a trend for vitamin C subjects to have fared better by 8 wk than placebo subjects. This again occurred despite similar mean initial severity scores between the 2 groups. Among subjects diagnosed with respiratory infections there was some tendency for supplemented patients to fare better than unsupplemented patients. Low leukocyte vitamin C levels, on admission, appear to be predictive of poor subsequent prognosis in elderly hospitalized patients. Results from this trial suggest that supplementation with a moderate dose of vitamin C may improve this prognosis and larger trials with greater numbers appear to be merited to confirm or deny this hypothesis.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
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