The Effect of a Low Dose of Vitamin C in Patients With COVID-19: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Vitamin C is a micronutrient with anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging properties that can strengthen the body’s immune system. In this study, it was attempted to assess the clinical efficiency of oral vitamin C in treating COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This double-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted on 401 patients hospitalized in Taleghani hospital, Abadan, over 18 years of age and with confirmed COVID-19 infection, from November 2020 to May 2021. The patients were randomly assigned to intervention groups (201 people, two tablets per day, each containing 500 mg of vitamin C) and the control group (200 people, placebo, containing starch received for five days). Improvements in clinical symptoms, death from baseline to the 28-day follow-up after the intervention, hospital length of stay, and laboratory values of C-reactive protein (CRP) were some of the considered outcome variables. Results: No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of the daily improvement of clinical symptoms and the odds of healing from each symptom increased by about 48-50%. The difference in the length of hospital stay between the two groups was close to significant (P=0.051). There was no significant difference in mortality between the two groups (P=0.8). There was no difference between the two groups in the laboratory parameters, except for alkaline phosphatase (P=0.03). Conclusion: Vitamin C had no significant effect on improving patients’ clinical symptoms such as fatigue, fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

Keywords

• ascorbic acid
• hospitalized
• covid-19
• virus
• vitamin c