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. 2023 Feb 2;15(3):771.
doi: 10.3390/nu15030771.

Global Dietary and Herbal Supplement Use during COVID-19-A Scoping Review

Ishaan Arora  1 , Shecoya White  1 , Rahel Mathews  1
Affiliations

Global Dietary and Herbal Supplement Use during COVID-19-A Scoping Review

Ishaan Arora et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of cure and the intensity of the global spread raised a common awareness of health. The aim of this scoping review is to summarize dietary supplement use globally during first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic search was conducted in December 2021 following PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, ERIC, and Scopus databases were searched, and 956 results were screened for eligibility. Fourteen cross-sectional studies from 11 countries and 3 continents were examined. All studies were large population surveys investigating healthy eating and supplement use during COVID-19. Vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc and multivitamins were the most widely reported, as well as natural/herbal products such as ginger and honey. The most common reason cited for supplements use was to strengthen immune system and to prevent infection of COVID-19. These studies reported that populations are relying on healthcare providers, family, friends, and social media to learn about supplement use. Future studies on the treatment of COVID-19 should include more evidence for supplement use.

Keywords: COVID-19; dietary supplements; herbal supplements; lockdown; review; scoping review; supplements.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA 2020 flow diagram displaying the scoping review process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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