Use of Vitamins and Minerals among Nurses in Sri Lanka in the Context of Getting Covid-19

Abstract

Due to frequent exposure to infected patients, coronavirus disease (COVID19) causes mortality among a significant proportion of nurses. The use of vitamins and minerals against COVID-19 is a growing trend and its utilization may be high among nurses. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the practice of the use of vitamins and minerals among nurses in the context of getting COVID-19. A webbased descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 150 nurses attending KIU who were working in government hospitals in Sri Lanka. The Google form of questionnaire was circulated among participants and the simple random sampling method was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. The study was ethically approved by the ERC at KIU. The mean age was 32.08 +5.79 years. The majority were females (94.6%), married (64.4%), vaccinate against COVID-19 (97.3%), and worked with handling COVID-19 infected or suspected patients (59.7%). Most (58%) stated that vitamins and minerals help to prevent or reduce the risk of getting COVID-19. On daily basis, Vitamin C (40.3%) and Multivitamins (20.8%), Calcium (21%), and iron (9.5%) were used. Further, on a few times per week basis, Vitamin A (25.5 %), B (24.8%), D (23.5%), E (23.5%), and zinc (20.1%) were used while 20.1% used Omega 3 in weekly basis. Gender, age, vaccination against COVID-19, working unit, and opinion on the risk of getting COVID-19 were not associated with the consumption of multivitamins or other vitamins and minerals. However, the working hospital of nurses was associated with the consumption of Vitamin C (p = 0.028) and Vitamin D (p = 0.039). The use of vitamins and minerals is a growing trend against COVID 19 and the use of vitamins C is more common. The working hospital was associated with the consumption of Vitamin C and D in the current study.