Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
Preliminary retrospective reports showed that zinc supplementation may decrease mortality in COVID-19 patients, postulating the potential therapeutic efficacy of zinc in the management of the disease. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Does zinc supplementation have beneficial impact on the course of COVID-19?
Study design:
This review article included 4 studies with 1,474 hospitalized patients (761 receiving zinc supplementation and 712 receiving standard care).
The mean age of the patients treated with zinc was 59.7(standard deviation, SD, 15.4), compared with 58.6 (17.2) years in the standard care group.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found survival to hospital discharge was 56.8% in the zinc group, compared to 75.9% in the non-zinc group [p = 0.88].
The investigators found in-hospital mortality was 22.3% in the zinc group, compared to 13.6% for the standard care group [p = 0.16].
The investigators found length of hospital stay was 7.7 (3.7) days in the zinc group and 7.2 (3.9) days in the standard treatment group [p 0.001].
The investigators found length of ICU stay was 4.9 (1.7) days in the zinc group and 5.8 (1.9) days in the standard care group [p = 0.009].
The investigators concluded zinc supplementation has not any beneficial impact on the course of COVID-19 evaluated as survival to hospital discharge and in-hospital mortality. The zinc-supplemented group has longer hospital and ICU lengths of stay. There is at present no evidence-based data to support routine zinc supplementation in COVID-19 patients.
Original title:
Should we supplement zinc in COVID-19 patients? Evidence from meta-analysis by Szarpak L, Pruc, M, [...], Filipiak KJ.
Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34180610/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on zinc and coronavirus right here.