Summary
Vitamin C is an essential micronutrient in the human diet. While large population
studies measuring vitamin C have been performed in other countries, there are few
studies of deficiency in the Australian population. This study aimed to quantify vitamin
C deficiency, identify scorbutic symptoms and examine dietary associations in a cohort
of preoperative general surgical patients.
Vitamin C levels were determined in a cohort of patients referred to a single surgeon
between January 2011 and December 2013. Baseline data were collected along with data
on fruit consumption, weekly citrus fruit intake and presence of scorbutic symptoms.
A total of 309 patients were included in the study and 21.4% of our cohort showed
a vitamin C level ≤11.4 μmol/L (deficient). Mean citrus fruit intake was significantly
higher in the normal vitamin C groups (>28.4 μmol/L) and patients with vitamin C levels
≤28.4 were more likely to consume no fruit (p=0.0004) which was also significant on multivariate analysis. Neither age nor gender
appeared predictive of suboptimal vitamin C levels. No symptoms were significantly
related to vitamin C levels on multivariate analysis.
Vitamin C deficiency was common in Australian adults attending a surgical practice
within south western Sydney. Review of the Australian recommended daily allowance
for vitamin C is suggested, not only in clinically well patients but particularly
in ICU and hospital inpatients. Larger studies examining the prevalence and impact
of vitamin C deficiency in the Australian population are required to further investigate
these findings.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 31, 2018
Accepted:
July 3,
2018
Received in revised form:
June 30,
2018
Received:
February 25,
2018
Identification
Copyright
Crown Copyright © 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. All rights reserved.
