Nasal sprays with exercise may reduce duration of respiratory infections: Lancet

A total of 13,799 people were randomly allocated from December 12, 2020 to April 7, 2023, to either usual care, gel-based nasal spray, saline nasal spray, or a digital intervention encouraging physical activity and stress management. Cloe to, 11,612 individuals provided full data for this primary outcome and were incorporated in the analysis.

The gel-based spray and saline spray groups expressed significantly lower days of sickness than the usual care group (8·2 days on average), but not the behavioral online group. Headache or sinus pain was the most common adverse event in the gel-based group, with 123 (4·8%) of 2556 individuals in the usual care group, 199 (7·8%) of 2498 individuals in the gel-based group, 101 (4·5%) of 2377 individuals in the saline group and 101 (4·5%) of 2091 individuals in the behavioral intervention group.

All treatments resulted in decreased antibiotic usage when compared to usual care with IRRs of 0.65 for gel-based spray, 0.69 for saline spray and 0.74 for behavioral website. Overall, the recommendation to use either nasal spray reduced sickness duration, and both sprays and the behavioral website reduced antibiotic use. 

Reference:

Little, P., Vennik, J., Rumsby, K., Stuart, B., Becque, T., Moore, M., Francis, N., Hay, A. D., Verheij, T., Bradbury, K., Greenwell, K., Dennison, L., Holt, S., Denison-Day, J., Ainsworth, B., Raftery, J., Thomas, T., Butler, C. C., Richards-Hall, S., … Geraghty, A. W. A. (2024). Nasal sprays and behavioural interventions compared with usual care for acute respiratory illness in primary care: a randomised, controlled, open-label, parallel-group trial. In The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(24)00140-1