Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2014 May 19:14:273.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2334-14-273.

Vitamin D3 and gargling for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections: a randomized controlled trial

Emma C Goodall, Andrea C Granados, Kathy Luinstra, Eleanor Pullenayegum, Brenda L Coleman, Mark Loeb, Marek Smieja  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Vitamin D3 and gargling for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections: a randomized controlled trial

Emma C Goodall et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: We undertook a 2X2 factorial, randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess whether vitamin D3 supplementation (10,000 international units per week) versus placebo and gargling versus no gargling could prevent viral, clinical upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in university students.

Methods: We randomized 600 students into 4 treatment arms: 1) vitamin D3 and gargling, 2) placebo and gargling, 3) vitamin D3 and no gargling, and 4) placebo and no gargling. Students completed weekly electronic surveys and submitted self-collected mid-turbinate nasal flocked swabs during September and October in 2010 or 2011. Symptomatic students also completed an electronic symptom diary. The primary and secondary outcomes were the occurrence of symptomatic clinical URTI and laboratory confirmed URTI respectively.

Results: Of 600 participants, 471 (78.5%) completed all surveys while 43 (7.2%) completed none; 150 (25.0%) reported clinical URTI. Seventy participants (23.3%) randomized to vitamin D3 reported clinical URTI compared to 80 (26.7%) randomized to placebo (RR:0.79, CI95:0.61-1.03, p = 0.09). Eighty-five participants (28.3%) randomized to gargling reported clinical URTI compared to 65 participants (21.7%) randomized to the no gargling arm (RR:1.3, CI95:0.92-1.57, p = 0.19). Laboratory testing identified 70 infections (46.7 per 100 URTIs). Vitamin D3 treatment was associated with a significantly lower risk for laboratory confirmed URTI (RR: 0.54, CI95:0.34-0.84, p = 0.007) and with a significantly lower mean viral load measured as log10 viral copies/mL (mean difference: -0.89, CI95: -1.7, -0.06, p = 0.04). Fewer students assigned to gargling experienced laboratory confirmed URTI, however this was not statistically significant (RR:0.82, CI95:0.53-1.26, p = 0.36).

Conclusions: These results suggest that vitamin D3 is a promising intervention for the prevention of URTI. Vitamin D3 significantly reduced the risk of laboratory confirmed URTI and may reduce the risk of clinical infections.

Clinical trials registration: NCT01158560.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of participant randomization and follow-up during the McFLu2 COLD3 Prevention Trial, Hamilton, Canada; 2010 and 2011.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Proud D. Upper airway viral infections. Pulm Pharmacol Ther. 2008;14(3):468–473. doi: 10.1016/j.pupt.2007.06.004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Monto AS. Epidemiology of viral respiratory infections. Am J Med. 2002;14(Suppl 6A):4S–12S. - PubMed
    1. Heikkinen T, Jarvinen A. The common cold. Lancet. 2003;14(9351):51–59. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12162-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kwong JC, Crowcroft NS, Campitelli MA, Ratnasingham S, Daneman N, Deeks SL, Manuel DG. Ontario Burden of Infectious Disease Study (ONBOIDS): An OAHPP/ICES Report. In. Toronto: Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences; 2010.
    1. Ginde AA, Mansbach JM, Camargo CA Jr. Association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and upper respiratory tract infection in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Arch Intern Med. 2009;14(4):384–390. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2008.560. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources