Effect of vitamin A supplementation on the outcome severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients: A pilot randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Introduction Vitamin A is one of the vitamins that is suggested as adjuvant therapy in viral infections due to its immune enhancing role. In the present clinical trial, we intended to assess the effect of vitamin A supplementation on Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) in hospitalized patients. Methods The present pilot randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 30 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Patients in the intervention group received 50000 IU/day intramuscular vitamin A for a maximum of two weeks. Patients in the control group continued their common treatment protocols. All participants were followed up until discharge from the hospital or death. The primary outcome of the study was time to achieve clinical response based on the six classes of an ordinal scale. Time to clinical response was calculated based on the days needed to improve two scores on the scale or patient's discharge. Results The time to clinical response was not significantly different between the two groups (7.23 ± 2.14 vs. 6.75 ± 1.85 days, respectively, p = 0.48). There was no significant difference between the groups regarding clinical response (hazard ratio: 1.76 [95% CI: 0.73, 4.26]). There were no significant differences between groups regarding the need for mechanical ventilation, duration of hospitalization, or death in the hospital. Conclusion The results of this pilot clinical trial showed no benefit of vitamin A compared with the common treatment on outcome severity in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Although the results are negative, there is still a great need for future clinical studies to provide a higher level of evidence.