Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40538585›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in nutrition2025

The association between serum vitamin C levels and respiratory infections in children and adolescents.

Ci Li, Zhiwei Zhu, Shicai Jiang, Xiang Feng, Kaijie Gao, Tiewei Li, Liu Yang, Panpan Fang, Junmei Yang

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PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Ci LiZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Zhiwei ZhuZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Shicai JiangZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Xiang FengZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Kaijie GaoZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Tiewei LiZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Liu YangZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Panpan FangZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Junmei YangZhengzhou Key Laboratory of Children's Infection and Immunity, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: Respiratory infections (RIs) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and vitamin C may play a vital role in the risk of RIs. However, high-quality evidence on the association between vitamin C and RIs in the younger population remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the association between serum vitamin C and RI risk in a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents. Methods: Utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017-2018, this study included 1,344 children and adolescents aged between 6 and 19 years old. Serum vitamin C levels were obtained from laboratory tests, and RIs were determined based on a self-reported health questionnaire. The association between vitamin C and RIs was tested using multivariable logistic regression models, interaction tests, and smoothing curve fitting. Results: A total of 238 participants (17.7%) reported a respiratory infection in the past 30 days. Serum vitamin C was significantly and negatively associated with the risk of RIs in all regression models. After adjusting for all potential confounders, an increase of the vitamin C level by 10 units indicated a decrease of the RI risk by 7% (OR = 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.99). Such an association remained consistently significant across subgroups with various demographical and health characteristics. Conclusion: Our study shows a negative association between vitamin C and RIs among children and adolescents, highlighting the protective role of vitamin C against RIs. Our findings suggest that vitamin C supplementation may be potentially used for the prevention and treatment of RIs, which needs to be validated in future well-designed studies.

Indexed as

adolescentschildrenNHANES5respiratory infectionvitamin C

Identifiers

PMID40538585
PMCPMC12176603

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.