Let $\R$ be a real closed field, let $X \subset \R^n$ be an irreducible real algebraic set and let $Z$ be an algebraic subset of $X$ of codimension $\geq 2$. Dubois and Efroymson proved the existence of an irreducible algebraic subset of $X$ of codimension $1$ containing~$Z$. We improve this dimension theorem as follows. Indicate by $\mu$ the minimum integer such that the ideal of polynomials in $\R[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ vanishing on $Z$ can be generated by polynomials of degree $\leq \mu$. We prove the following two results: \begin{inparaenum}[\rm(1)] \item There exists a polynomial $P \in \R[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ of degree~$\leq \mu+1$ such that $X \cap P^{-1}(0)$ is an irreducible algebraic subset of $X$ of codimension $1$ containing~$Z$. \item Let $F$ be a polynomial in $\R[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ of degree~$d$ vanishing on $Z$. Suppose there exists a nonsingular point $x$ of $X$ such that $F(x)=0$ and the differential at $x$ of the restriction of $F$ to $X$ is nonzero. Then there exists a polynomial $G \in \R[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ of degree $\leq \max\{d,\mu+1\}$ such that, for each $t \in (-1,1) \setminus \{0\}$, the set $\{x \in X \mid F(x)+tG(x)=0\}$ is an irreducible algebraic subset of $X$ of codimension $1$ containing~$Z$. \end{inparaenum} Result (1) and a slightly different version of result~(2) are valid over any algebraically closed field also.