Vitamin C as a Supplementary Therapy in Relieving Symptoms of the Common Cold: A Meta-Analysis of 10 Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 1

Characteristics of included studies for the comparison of vitamin C plus antiviral therapy with antiviral therapy alone.

Author	Year	Sample size (T/C)	Gender (male/female)		Age (T/C, year)	Intervention		Outcome
			Treatment	Contrast		Treatment	Contrast
Fan [21]	2016	50/50	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + symptom improvement + side effects
Gao and Wang [22]	2014	130/130	69/61	72/58	Not reported	Antiviral therapy+ vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy
Li [23]	2017	33/33	15/18	16/17	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + symptom improvement
Wu [24]	2015	48/48	Not reported	Not reported	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + symptom improvement
Gao [25]	2014	39/39	Not reported	Not reported		Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + symptom improvement
Sun [26]	2016	42/36	27/15	Not reported	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy
Liu [27]	2007	50/50	31/19	28/22	Not reported	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + symptom improvement
Li and Wang [28]	2016	39/39	22/17	21/18	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + side effects
Liang [29]	2016	42/42	22/20	24/18	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + side effects
Lin [30]	2015	54/54	35/19	34/20	/	Antiviral therapy + vitamin C	Antiviral therapy	Total efficacy + side effects