Relationship between vitamin C deficiency and frailty in acutely hospitalized patients

Association between vitamin C deficiency and frailty in elderly patients aged 75 and above admitted in the acute medical wards

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12620000655943

Acronym

N/A

Enrollment

160

Registered

2020-06-05

Start date

2020-05-26

Completion date

2020-12-31

Last updated

2021-10-18

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

We hypothesize that acutely hospitalized frail patients may have vitamin C deficiency and this could be associated with poorer outcomes during inpatient stay (longer LOS, higher mortality, complications etc). This study aims to look prospectively for an association between vitamin C deficiency and frailty, which hasn't been evaluated in the past and if this is demonstarted,this can pave the way to future research to determine new treatment options for frail patients.

Interventions

Patients will be approached by the research team members in order to provide consent for blood test sample to measure vitamin C; an information sheet will be provided explaining the trial, its aims and the possibility of withdrawing at any time. There will be only a once off encounter with the patient permitting full assessment of frailty and measure confounding factors. Patients, if deemed to have capacity to consent, or guardians of patients, will be allowed to make an informed consent.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

75 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

A member of the research team will approach the participants and a written informed consent will be obtained from the participants. In case of cognitive impairment, the decision regarding participants’ capacity will be made from their mini mental state examination (MMSE) scores. For this study, we will only approach those patients > 75 yo referred by ED to General Medicnie acute admission with a score of 19 to 24 on the MMSE. An MMSE score of 19-24 indicates mild cognitive impairment, but given the low complexity of this project, patients would still be expected to have capacity and consent for themselves. Patients with MMSE below 19 will be excluded on the basis that they will be unable to provide informed consent for themselves. We will adhere to recommendations from Black et al (9) regarding assessment of verbal, behavioural, and emotional cues expressing comprehension and assent

Exclusion criteria

Vitamin C treatment/supplementation Palliative patients Lack of valid consent Reluctance to participate or hesitancy

Outcome results