{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]],"date-time":"2026-07-17T14:14:57Z","timestamp":1784297697466,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,20]],"date-time":"2021-06-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1624147200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Frailty is common in older hospitalised patients and may be associated with micronutrient malnutrition. Only limited studies have explored the relationship between frailty and vitamin C deficiency. This study investigated the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency and its association with frailty severity in patients \u226575 years admitted under a geriatric unit. Patients (n = 160) with a mean age of 84.4 \u00b1 6.4 years were recruited and underwent frailty assessment by use of the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS). Patients with an EFS score &lt;10 were classified as non-frail\/vulnerable\/mildly frail and those with \u226510 as moderate\u2013severely frail. Patients with vitamin C levels between 11\u201328 \u03bcmol\/L were classified as vitamin C depleted while those with levels &lt;11 \u03bcmol\/L were classified as vitamin C deficient. A multivariate logistic regression model determined the relationship between vitamin C deficiency and frailty severity after adjustment for various co-variates. Fifty-seven (35.6%) patients were vitamin C depleted, while 42 (26.3%) had vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C levels were significantly lower among patients who were moderate\u2013severely frail when compared to those who were non-frail\/vulnerable\/mildly frail (p &lt; 0.05). After adjusted analysis, vitamin C deficiency was 4.3-fold more likely to be associated with moderate\u2013severe frailty (aOR 4.30, 95% CI 1.33-13.86, p = 0.015). Vitamin C deficiency is common and is associated with a greater severity of frailty in older hospitalised patients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu13062117","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,20]],"date-time":"2021-06-20T21:50:15Z","timestamp":1624225815000},"page":"2117","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":21,"title":["Prevalence of Hypovitaminosis C and its Relationship with Frailty in Older Hospitalised Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7716-2599","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yogesh","family":"Sharma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine & Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide 5042, Australia"},{"name":"Department of General Medicine, Division of Medicine, Cardiac & Critical Care, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide 5042, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexandra","family":"Popescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatrics & Rehabilitation, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide 5042, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chris","family":"Horwood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide 5042, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"Hakendorf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide 5042, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5164-3327","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Campbell","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"752","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(12)62167-9","article-title":"Frailty in elderly people","volume":"381","author":"Clegg","year":"2013","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"392","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jamda.2013.03.022","article-title":"Frailty Consensus: A Call to Action","volume":"14","author":"Morley","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. 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