Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Catechins, phytochemicals contained mainly in green tea, exhibit antiviral activity against various acute infectious diseases experimentally. Clinical evidence supporting these effects, however, is not conclusive. We performed a placebo-controlled, single-blind, randomized control trial to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of consumption of catechins-containing beverage for preventing acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). Two hundred and seventy healthcare workers were randomly allocated to high-catechin (three daily doses of 57 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum), low-catechin (one daily dose of 57 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum), or placebo (0 mg catechins and 100 mg xanthan gum) group. Subjects consumed a beverage with or without catechins for 12 weeks from December 2017 through February 2018. The primary endpoint was incidence of URTIs compared among groups using a time-to-event analysis. A total of 255 subjects were analyzed (placebo group n = 86, low-catechin group n = 85, high catechin group n = 84). The URTI incidence rate was 26.7% in the placebo group, 28.2% in the low-catechin group, and 13.1% in the high-catechin group (log rank test, p = 0.042). The hazard ratio (95% confidence interval (CI)) with reference to the placebo group was 1.09 (0.61–1.92) in the low-catechin group and 0.46 (0.23–0.95) in the high-catechin group. These findings suggest that catechins combined with xanthan gum protect against URTIs. View Full-Text

Keywords: acute upper respiratory infection; catechins; epigallocatechin gallate; influenza like illness; randomized controlled trial

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Furushima, D.; Nishimura, T.; Takuma, N.; Iketani, R.; Mizuno, T.; Matsui, Y.; Yamaguchi, T.; Nakashima, Y.; Yamamoto, S.; Hibi, M.; Yamada, H. Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients 2020, 12, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010004

AMA Style

Furushima D, Nishimura T, Takuma N, Iketani R, Mizuno T, Matsui Y, Yamaguchi T, Nakashima Y, Yamamoto S, Hibi M, Yamada H. Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2020; 12(1):4. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010004

Chicago/Turabian Style

Furushima, Daisuke, Takuma Nishimura, Norikata Takuma, Ryo Iketani, Tomohito Mizuno, Yuji Matsui, Tohru Yamaguchi, Yu Nakashima, Shinji Yamamoto, Masanobu Hibi, and Hiroshi Yamada. 2020. "Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial" Nutrients 12, no. 1: 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010004

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Prevention of Acute Upper Respiratory Infections by Consumption of Catechins in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

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