Vitamin C intake and osteoarthritis: findings of NHANES 2003–2018 and Mendelian randomization study

• Published in: Frontiers in nutrition (Lausanne) Vol. 11; p. 1409578
• Main Authors: Zhang, Hongjie, Jiang, Xuan, Bai, Lei, Chen, Jiahui, Luo, Wei, Ma, Jianxiong, Ma, Xinlong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 23.10.2024
• Subjects: Mendelian randomization; NHANES; Nutrition; osteoarthritis; vitamin C intake; nutrition; NHANES; vitamin C intake; Mendelian randomization; osteoarthritis
• ISSN: 2296-861X; 2296-861X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1409578

The role of vitamin C in osteoarthritis (OA) is still a subject of debate. Our aim was to combine the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and MR studies to explore the relationship between vitamin C intake and OA. Clinical information on participants during NHANES 2003-2018 was collected and the relationship between vitamin C intake and OA risk was assessed using logistic regression modelling. In MR analyses, three methods were used to explore the causality of vitamin C intake with OA. Sensitivity analysis to verify the stability of the MR study. The cross-sectional study included a total of 31,527 participants, categorizing them into low (<30.2 mg), medium (30.2-93.0 mg) and high (>93.0 mg) level groups based on their vitamin C intake levels. Logistic regression models showed that vitamin C intake was not associated with OA risk (  > 0.05). Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method of MR study showed no causality between vitamin C intake and OA (OR = 0.993, 95% CI: 0.901 ~ 1.095,  = 0.882). Sensitivity analysis indicated that the MR study was reliable. Our cross-sectional and MR studies showed that vitamin C intake was not associated with OA risk. More researches are needed in the future to investigate the link between vitamin C and OA.