Sex as a factor in levels of serum ascorbic acid in a healthy elderly population.
To investigate gender difference in serum ascorbic acid levels in healthy elderly, its status was studied in 175 free-living and healthy elderly people aged 63-81, who were not using ascorbic acid supplement. Both mean dietary ascorbic acid intake (3.2 +/- 1.3 mg/kg of body weight/day) and its serum concentration (1.11 +/- 0.23 mg/100 ml) for females (n = 96) were significantly higher than for males (2.7 +/- 1.1 mg/kg/day and 0.91 +/- 0.30 mg/100 ml; n = 79). It was estimated that intakes needed to maintain a serum ascorbic acid concentration of 1.0 mg/100 ml would be about 2 mg/kg of body weight/day for females and about 3 mg/kg/day for males. In this population, dietary ascorbic acid intake was the most important predictor of its serum concentration, but sex was also significantly related to it, accounting about 7% of its total variation.
Itoh
R
R
National Institute of Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan.
Yamada
K
K
Oka
J
J
Echizen
H
H
Murakami
K
K
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D001835:Body Weight; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
D001205:Ascorbic Acid