13 Jul 2024 • A recent study's findings suggest that nasal sprays are effective for respiratory illness prevention in high-risk adults. Between December 2020 and April 2023, 13,799 participants were randomly assigned to usual care, gel-based nasal spray, saline nasal spray, or a digital intervention promoting physical activity and stress management.

• The primary outcome, days of respiratory illness in the past 6 months, showed significant reductions with gel-based spray (6.5 days) and saline spray (6.4 days) compared to usual care (8.2 days), adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] was 0·82. The behavioral intervention did not significantly reduce illness days (7.4 days).

• Headache or sinus pain was more frequent with gel-based spray (7.8%) compared to usual care (4.8%) with a risk ratio of 1·61, and 4.5% in the saline and behavioral intervention groups.

• Antibiotic use was significantly lower in all intervention groups compared to usual care: incidence rate ratio of 0.65 for gel-based spray, 0.69 for saline spray, and 0.74 for the behavioral intervention.

The use of nasal sprays (gel-based or saline) effectively decreased illness duration, while both sprays and the behavioral website led to reduced antibiotic usage.

Source:Lancet| Read full story