Cpgm. Degroot et al., CHANGES IN THE VITAMIN STATUS OF ELDERLY EUROPEANS - PLASMA VITAMIN-A, VITAMIN-E, VITAMIN-B-6, VITAMIN-B-12, FOLIC-ACID AND CAROTENOIDS, European journal of clinical nutrition, 50, 1996, pp. 32-46
Objective: Determination of the plasma vitamin and carotenoid concentr
ations of a number of elderly populations to describe their micronutri
ent status and examine geographical patterns and the cross-sectional a
nd longitudinal relationships with sex, age, food and alcohol intake.
Design: Longitudinal study. Setting: Twelve small towns in ten Europea
n countries and one in the USA. Subjects: Randomized sample of 1175 su
bjects of both sexes born in the period 1913-1918, stratified accordin
g to age and sex. Interventions: Blood plasma collection and determina
tion of alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, alpha-carotene, all-trans-
and cis-beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanth
in, vitamin B-12, folic acid and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. From the orig
inal sample examined in 1988/1989, measurements were repeated in 938 s
ubjects in 1993. Results: There were very large within and between cou
ntry differences in the micronutrient levels with no definite geograph
ical pattern emerging. The retinol levels decreased significantly betw
een 1988/1989 and 1993 (-0.2 mu mol/l, P=0.0001), unlike the total car
otene levels (0.01, NS) while the alpha-tocopherol (0.7 mu mol/l, P =
0.002), folic acid (1.1 nmol/l, P < 0.01) and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (
12 nmol/l, P = 0.0001) levels increased significantly. Vitamin B-12 le
vels increased nonsignificantly in men (17.2 pmol/l, P = 0.77) and dec
reased significantly in women (- 37 pmol/l, P = 0.012). The prevalence
of biochemical vitamin A deficiency was zero in both 1988/1989 and 19
93, that of vitamin E deficiency decreased from 1.1% to 0.6% and for v
itamin B-6 from 23.3% to 5.7%. Vitamin B-12 biochemical deficiency inc
reased from 2.7% to 7.3% and for folic acid from zero to 0.3%. Conclus
ions: Changes in the median micronutrient plasma levels over a 4-y per
iod varied, exceeding 30%-40% in some elderly populations. This was re
flected in changes, mostly decreases, in the prevalences of vitamin de
ficiency.