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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Oct 9:2020:8573742.
doi: 10.1155/2020/8573742. eCollection 2020.

Vitamin C as a Supplementary Therapy in Relieving Symptoms of the Common Cold: A Meta-Analysis of 10 Randomized Controlled Trials

Li Ran  1   2 , Wenli Zhao  3 , Hongwu Wang  4 , Ye Zhao  5 , Huaien Bu  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Vitamin C as a Supplementary Therapy in Relieving Symptoms of the Common Cold: A Meta-Analysis of 10 Randomized Controlled Trials

Li Ran et al. Biomed Res Int. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Aim: To investigate whether vitamin C performs well as a supplemental treatment for common cold.

Method: After systematically searching through the National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Cochrane Library, Elsevier, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP databases, and Wanfang databases, 10 randomized controlled trials were selected for our meta-analysis with RevMan 5.3 software. Published in China, all 10 studies evaluated the effect of combined vitamin C and antiviral therapy for the treatment of common cold.

Results: The total efficacy (RR = 1.27, 95% CI (1.08, 1.48), P = 0.003), the time for symptom amelioration (MD = -15.84, 95% CI (-17.02, -14.66), P < 0.00001), and the time for healing (I, 95% CI (-14.98, -4.22), P = 0.0005) were better with vitamin C supplementation than with antiviral therapy alone.

Conclusions: Vitamin C could be used as a supplementary therapy along with antiviral regimens to relieve patients from the symptoms of common cold.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection procedure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot of the meta-analysis of total efficacy.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plot of the meta-analysis of average time for symptom amelioration.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plot of the meta-analysis of average time for healing.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Funnel plot of publication bias for the comparison of vitamin C plus antiviral therapy with antiviral therapy alone.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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