None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Healthcare workers are experiencing additional stress due to the COVID19 pandemic. The primary objective of this study is to determine if giving essential healthcare workers a probiotic supplement during the COVID19 pandemic can reduce their stress. The study will recruit 507 nurses working in clinical environments. Participants will complete questionnaires about stress, anxiety, and depression before being randomly assigned to receive capsules containing either the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 or a placebo and asked to take one a day for 12 weeks. At the end of 12 weeks participants will be asked to complete the psychological stress questions again. A secondary outcome of interest is the number of days of cold and flu symptoms between the two groups.
Interventions
Participants who are randomly assigned to the intervention group will receive capsules containing the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 (6X109 colony forming units).
Participants will be instructed to take one capsule a day for a period of 12 weeks.
Adherence will be assessed by asking participants to enter the number of remaining capsules they have in the bottle at the post-intervention data collection phase.
Sponsors
University of Auckland
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 70 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Eligible participants are nurses working in a clinical area.
Exclusion criteria
1. Already taking probiotic supplements 2. Taking immune suppressant medication
Outcome results
None listed