Publication date: Feb 01, 2025
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy was widely touted as a potential treatment or preventive therapy for COVID-19 despite a lack of supporting evidence. One potential harm of high-dose vitamin C supplementation is increased urinary oxalate, which may increase the risk of hyperoxaluria and oxalate kidney stones. This study aims to evaluate public interest in vitamin C during the COVID-19 pandemic based on online search volume and to characterize variation in vitamin C interest as a potential contributor to kidney stone formation. Methods: The volume and frequency of online search traffic related to vitamin C and COVID-19 were assessed using the Google Trends platform (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA) between 2018 and 2022. Weekly relative search volumes (RSV), the proportional volume of online searches for a search term, were assessed to compare variations in online interest in vitamin C and COVID-19. The most popular Google search results for vitamin C as a treatment for COVID-19 were assessed for medical accuracy. Statistical analysis was performed with t-tests and linear regression. Online search volume for vitamin C increased four-fold at the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. After the initial outbreak, average RSV for vitamin C remained significantly elevated compared to pre-COVID-19 levels (37. 7 vs. 25. 1, p
Open Access PDF
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| covid-19 | |
| Kidney | nephrolithiasis |
| Popular | oxalate |
| Therapy | pandemic |
| Weekly | vitamin c |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| drug | DRUGBANK | Ascorbic acid |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 Pandemic |
| disease | MESH | Nephrolithiasis |
| disease | MESH | hyperoxaluria |
| pathway | REACTOME | Reproduction |