A randomized trial of zinc nasal spray for the treatment of upper respiratory illness in adults.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Zinc Sulfate in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Patients with acute onset of upper respiratory illness of less than 24 hours' duration were eligible for the study.

A nasopharyngeal swab was obtained at the time of enrollment for viral culture.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Zinc Sulfate and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Zinc Sulfate.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Zinc Sulfate, giving a reference point.

The medication was administered as two inhalations in each nostril four times a day.

Symptoms were scored as absent (0), mild (1), moderate (2), or severe (3).

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acute Disease, Astringents, Common Cold, Nasopharynx, Respiratory Tract Infections and Zinc Sulfate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Zinc Sulfate.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2001 (The American journal of medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.