Association of COVID-19 mortality with serum selenium, zinc and copper: Six observational studies across Europe.

What Was Tested

This observational study looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and Copper (Supplement).

Certain trace elements are essential for life and affect immune system function, and their intake varies by region and population.

The researchers tested the hypothesis that a disease-specific decline occurs and correlates with mortality risk in different countries in Europe.

Who Took Part

The study group was 19 patients.

Serum samples from 551 COVID-19 patients (including 87 non-survivors) who had participated in observational studies in Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) were analyzed for trace elements by total reflection X-ray fluorescence.

How the Study Was Run

A subset (n=2069) of the European EPIC study served as reference.

Analyses were performed blinded to clinical data in one analytical laboratory.

What Was Measured

The researchers tested the hypothesis that a disease-specific decline occurs and correlates with mortality risk in different countries in Europe.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Zinc, Selenium, Copper, Trace Elements and COVID-19.

Author keywords: SARS-CoV-2, biomarker, mortality and nutrition.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is an observational study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and Copper (Supplement) in 19 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

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 2022 (Frontiers in immunology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page and the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.