Effects of 12 Weeks of Regular Exercise with Vitamin C Supplementation in Winter on the Rate of Respiratory Tract Infections in Male High School Students

Introduction: Respiratory tract infections are health issues across the world, which impose high economic costs on families. Studies have shown that regular exercise and vitamin C supplementation positively influence health. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of 12 weeks of regular exercise and vitamin C supplementation on respiratory tract infections in male students. Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on 120 high school students, who were randomly assigned to four groups of 30, including placebo, exercise, exercise with vitamin C supplementation, and vitamin C supplementation. Groups two and three performed the selected exercises three sessions per week for 12 weeks. Groups three and four consumed three vitamin C tablets (250 mg) per week. Data were recorded on the duration of infection (day), frequency of the cases, and week of the first respiratory infection during the research period. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 22 using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc at the significance level of P≤0.05. Results: The duration of respiratory infections in the exercise group was significantly shorter compared to the placebo group (P=0.001) and vitamin C group (P=0.02), also it was significantly shorter in the exercise group (P=0.007) and vitamin C group (P=0.007) compared to the exercise with vitamin C group. In the exercise with vitamin C group, the first week of pulmonary infection was longer than the vitamin C group (P=0.04). Conclusion: According to the results, regular exercise could effectively prevent respiratory infections in the male high school students, while the effectiveness of vitamin C was dose-dependent; therefore, more investigations should be focused on vitamin C supplementation.

Keywords:

Exercise , Vitamin C , respiratory infections , Male High School Students