Associations of age, smoking habits and diabetes with plasma vitamin C of elderly of the POLA study

The objective of this study was rr, determine the associations of age and sex with plasma vitamin C (vit C) concentration taking into account smoking habits and the presence of age-related pathologies, such as diabetes. The POLA study is a population-based study on age-related:eye diseases and their:risk factors, ana plasma Vitamin C evaluation is part of the biological parameters measured in the 1987; volunteer subjects living in Sete (South of France) and aged more than 60 years. Men had lower average plasma vit C levels than women (31.6 muM.L-1 versus 40.3 muM.L-1, p = 0.001), Plasma:vit C was stable as a function of age in women but decreased in men (p = 0.02), enhancing the difference in vit C concentration between men and women with advancing age. Smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day was associated to a lower plasma vit C concentation in men (p = 0.001) but not in women, and diabetic subjects tended to have:lower vit C concentrations, :the difference being significant only in women (p = 0.003). We conclude that there. is a clear influence of sex on plasma vit C, This difference may be due to dietary habits, or metabolism, but may also be due to different sensitivity of age, smoking and to some pathologies.