Vitamin D3 is a Promising Intervention for Prevention of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Goodall, et al. (2014) 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.

The researchers randomized 600 students into four 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.

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).

The researchers say 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. Their research was published in BMC Infectious Diseases. 

Reference: Goodall EC, Granados AC, Luinstra K, Pullenayegum E, Coleman BL, Loeb M and Smieja M. Vitamin D3 and gargling for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Infectious Diseases 2014, 14:273  doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-273