A study of vitamin C status was undertaken in long-term hospitalized patients aged 70-90 years in two hospitals. Vitamin C status was also determined in a control group of healthy young adults aged 19-40 years. The plasma vitamin C level (Mean±SD, mg/100 ml) was 0.22±0.05 for elderly males (n=10), 0.33±0.12 for elderly females (n=10), 0.44±0.15 for young males (n=10), and 0.58±0.12 for young females (n=10). Eighty-five percent of the elderly patients were classified as having marginal deficiency (0.2-0.4 mg/100 ml) or deficiency (<0.2 mg/100 ml). Thus, impaired vitamin C status was observed in hospitalized elderly patients. The dietary intake of vitamin C (Mean±SD, mg/day) in the 4 subject groups was 56.3±31.0, 55.1±16.3, 65.2±39.6, and 75.4±36.5, respectively. These values were considerably lower than those obtained by the national nutrition survey. All subjects received supplementation with a multivitamin providing 250 mg/day of vitamin C for 28 days. The plasma vitamin C level after the supplementation was 0.74±0.13, 0.90±0.08, 1.00±0.14, and 1.07±0.14, respectively. In all groups the vitamin C level was markedly higher than before supplementation. The dietary intake of vitamin C on days 21-23 of supplementation was 70.9±14.6, 70.8±8.1, 52.3±31.4, and 57.1±22.9, respectively. These results indicate that multivitamin supplementation improved the vitamin C status. The plasma vitamin C level returned to its initial state at 8 days after the discontinuation of supplementation. Our findings suggest that adequate multivitamin supplementation is important for the long-term hospitalized elderly.
