https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4090-7008
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Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that can lead to severe respiratory distress requiring hospitalization and can be fatal. Media have reported that various dietary supplements (DS) or their combination with different medications can prevent infection or decrease disease severity. Here, we analyzed data collected from 15,830 patient follow-up telephone interviews from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences COVID-19 testing sites from March 15 to August 1, 2020. Within the REDCap database, we recorded patient demographics and DS and medication use. In total, data on DS and medication use was available for 8,150 study participants, of whom 21.9% and 4.1% reported using DS or medications, respectively, to either prevent or treat COVID-19. The majority of respondents were female (64%) and non-Hispanic whites (44.5%). Most individuals (64.5%) who took DS were younger than 50 years of age. Products such as vitamin C (1,013, 33.2%), multivitamins (722, 23.6%), and vitamin D (294, 9.6%) were the most commonly used DS among the responders. Analysis of the DS use and symptom scores association did not provide a strong evidence of beneficial health effects of DS. The results of this study demonstrate that a significantly higher proportion of study participants considered usage of DS to mitigate or prevent COVID-19-related symptoms compared to those who preferred medications. However, lack of observable health benefits associated with ingestion of DS suggests that more rigorous research is needed to substantiate the label claims.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank UAMS, the numerous students, faculty, and healthcare workers who volunteered their time in response to this unprecedented pandemic to conduct telephone interviews, contact tracing, and mobile triage efforts. We would also like to thank Dr. Kristy Kutanzi for critical reading of the manuscript and to Christopher Fettes for his excellent editorial services.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.
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Notes on contributors
J. Corbin Norton
J. Corbin Norton is a urology resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Corbin studied medicine and obtained his Masters of Public Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He is passionate about outcomes-based research, men’s health research, and using his public health training to investigate racial disparities currently present in our medical system.
Maria D. Politis
Maria D. Politis is a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Maria was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, during which time she was the project manager for COVID-19 contact tracing in a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Health. The focus of Maria’s research is on birth defects and childhood outcomes, with a focus on environmental exposures and health disparities.
Milan Bimali
Milan Bimali is a senior statistician at Becton Dickinson and Company. He currently collaborates with biomedical scientists and engineers in clinical studies involving diagnostic devices. He was an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences when he collaborated on this project.
Keyur S. Vyas
Keyur S. Vyas is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed his medical school training followed by an Internal Medicine residency, Chief Residency, and Infectious Diseases fellowship all at UAMS in Little Rock, prior to joining the faculty in 2008. He is program director for the UAMS Internal Medicine Residency and medical director for Infection Prevention and Control at UAMS Health. His areas of interest include infection prevention, immunization, viral diseases including influenza, COVID-19 and HIV, and travel medicine. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Physicians, for which he is the current Governor-Elect for the Arkansas chapter.
Emine Bircan
Emine Bircan is a doctoral student of the Department of Epidemiology at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Emine served as the project manager for the Mobile Triage Follow Up project in a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Health. Her research interest include birth defects and childhood outcomes; long-term maternal outcomes among mothers who delivered a child with birth defect with a focus on racial ethnic disparities.
Wendy N. Nembhard
Wendy N. Nembhard is Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, Professor of Pediatrics at the Division of Neonatology at the College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and an Investigator at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Nembhard also serves as a Director for the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention. Her research interests include adverse perinatal outcomes including birth defects, fetal and infant mortality, preterm birth and low birthweight; racial/ethnic disparities in perinatal outcomes; long-term outcomes in children born with birth defects and fetal origins of adult chronic diseases.
Benjamin C. Amick
Benjamin C. Amick is Associate Dean for Research and a Professor at the Department of Epidemiology at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Among Dr. Amick’s research interests are cancer survivorship and sustainable employment, evolution of new technology for quality improvement, labor markets and health, and life course epidemiology.
Igor Koturbash
Igor Koturbash is an Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Dietary Supplements Research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Being both MD and PhD, Igor has a long-lasting interest in diet and dietary supplements and their impact on human health. Therefore, the major focus of his research is safety, efficacy and mechanisms of action of dietary supplements and understanding how diet and dietary supplements can modulate tissue response to cancer therapy. Igor is heavily involved in a number of safety and efficacy studies on various dietary supplements and herbs, including methionine supplementation, green tea extract and cannabidiol (CBD), to name a few. Igor has published 100+ peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and his research has received uninterrupted extramural funding from various sources since the beginning of his independent career.