Abstract
Most COVID-19 cases are treated as outpatients, while the majority of studies on COVID-19 focus on inpatients. Little is known about the self-reporting and self-rating of the disease’s symptoms, and the associations of prophylactic use of dietary supplements with COVID-19 severity have not been addressed. The aims of this study are to evaluate COVID-19 severity and to relate them to sociodemographic characteristics and prophylactic dietary supplements. An observational patient-based study conducted through an online questionnaire on recovered COVID-19 patients. The patients were assessed for several severity parameters, sociodemographic parameters, and prophylactic dietary supplement use. A total of 428 patients were evaluated. Age and presence of comorbidities had positive associations with the severity parameters. The severe infection group had the highest proportion of patients stressed about COVID-19 (P < 0.05). Cigarette, but not hookah, smoking was significantly associated with less severe symptoms. Vitamin D negatively predicted disease severity (P < 0.05). In conclusion, stress, age, and presence of comorbidities were the most important positive predictors of COVID-19 severity, while prophylactic vitamin D use and smoking were significant negative predictors. The use of protective measures and other prophylactic dietary supplements was not significantly associated with symptom severity.
Highlights
Several factors such as sociodemographic factors, the use of protective measures, and the use of prophylactic supplements have been linked to COVID-19 infection and severity
2.1 Study design and participants. This was an observational study of a convenience sample of patients who recovered from COVID-19, and this study was conducted in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate (Iraq) between July and August 2020 through an online patientbased survey via Google Forms in three different languages (Kurdish, Arabic, and English)
There is no consistency regarding the dose of these supplements in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 [47], we found that the patients who took more than 1,000 mg daily of prophylactic vitamin C had a significantly lower proportion of sleep disturbances than the patients who took less than this daily dose
Summary
Several factors such as sociodemographic factors, the use of protective measures, and the use of prophylactic supplements have been linked to COVID-19 infection and severity. Body mass index (BMI), and comorbidities are among the most important demographic parameters; other factors such as sex, smoking status, place of residence, housing condition, nature of employment, and concern about COVID-19 are believed to be associated with this infection and its severity. BMI is positively associated with COVID-19 severity [3,4]. The COVID-19 rate has been reported to be higher in males than in females [5]. Preexisting medical conditions have been linked with poor outcomes of COVID-19 infection [6,7,8]
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