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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Apr 29:2020:4940673.
doi: 10.1155/2020/4940673. eCollection 2020.

Association between Serum Vitamin C and the Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

Li Ran  1 , Wenli Zhao  2 , Xiaodong Tan  1 , Hongwu Wang  3 , Kaito Mizuno  4 , Ken Takagi  5 , Ye Zhao  6 , Huaien Bu  3
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Meta-Analysis

Association between Serum Vitamin C and the Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

Li Ran et al. Cardiovasc Ther. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is regarded as a major and independent risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, and numerous studies observed an inverse correlation between vitamin C intake and blood pressure.

Aim: Our aim is to investigate the relationship between serum vitamin C and blood pressure, including the concentration differences and the correlation strength.

Method: Two independent researchers searched and screened articles from the National Library of Medicine, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP databases, and WANFANG databases. A total of 18 eligible studies were analyzed in the Reviewer Manager 5.3 software, including 14 English articles and 4 Chinese articles.

Results: In the evaluation of serum vitamin C levels, the concentration in hypertensive subjects is 15.13 μmol/L lower than the normotensive ones (mean difference = -15.13, 95% CI [-24.19, -6.06], and P = 0.001). Serum vitamin C has a significant inverse relation with both systolic blood pressure (Fisher's Z = -0.17, 95% CI [-0.20, -0.15], P < 0.00001) and diastolic blood pressure (Fisher's Z = -0.15, 95% CI [-0.20, -0.10], P < 0.00001).

Conclusions: People with hypertension have a relatively low serum vitamin C, and vitamin C is inversely associated with both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA 2009 flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot of the meta-analysis of serum vitamin C concentration in hypertensive and normotensive subjects.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 5
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