Introduction: Some health instructions and proceedings were widely broadcasted and advised by scientific centers and social media concerning coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention, in the early days of the epidemic. Almost all of them had been sourced from narrative statements or non-evidence based sciences. Herein, we intended to deeply investigate the usefulness and efficiency of such recommendation on COVID-19 prevention.
Materials and Methods: Ninety-seven reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed positive COVID-19 individuals as case and 103 suffering from other diseases as control group were enrolled. To collect the data, an expert validated questionnaire encompassed demographic information, past medical history and pre-infection preventive proceedings (consumption of vitamin D3, C, and zinc supplement, wearing face masks and gloves, hand washing, keeping at least 1.5 m distance with other people and staying at home) was used. The data between two groups were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.
Results: There were significant differences in vitamin C, D3 and zinc consumption between COVID-19 (case) and non-COVID-19 (control) groups. Control group had higher consumption of these nutrients than case group (66 (64%) vs 41 (42.2%), OR=0.62, P = 0.001 for vitamin D3, 69 (66.9%) vs 48 (49%), OR=0.73, P = 0.012 for vitamin C and 31 (30%) vs 14 (14.4%), OR=0.45, P = 0.021 for zinc consumption). Physical protective care was significantly higher in non-COVID-19 patients. So that, they used more face masks, gloves or did more hand washing (77 (79.3%) vs 96 (93.2%), OR=0.82, 95% CI=0.71-0.93, P = 0.026). Keeping home quarantine and social distance were also significantly higher in patients without COVID-19 (OR=0.4, 95% CI=0.21-0.59, P = 0.001 and OR=0.41, 95% CI=0.19-0.63, P = 0.001, respectively).
Conclusions: General protective proceedings have significant protective roles against COVID-19.