AUTHOR=Baranova Ancha , Song Yuqing , Cao Hongbao , Yue Weihua , Zhang Fuquan 

TITLE=Causal associations of tea intake with COVID-19 infection and severity

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.1005466

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.1005466

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<p>Tea ingredients can effectively inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection at adequate concentrations. It is not known whether tea intake could impact the susceptibility to COVID-19 or its severity. We aimed to evaluate the causal effects of tea intake on COVID-19 outcomes. We performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to assess the causal associations between tea intake (<italic>N</italic> = 441,279) and three COVID-19 outcomes, including SARS-CoV-2 infection (122,616 cases and 2,475,240 controls), hospitalized COVID-19 (32,519 cases and 2,062,805 controls), and critical COVID-19 (13,769 cases and 1,072,442 controls). The MR analyses indicated that genetic propensity for tea consumption conferred a negative causal effect on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR: 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78–0.97, <italic>P</italic> = 0.015). No causal effects on hospitalized COVID-19 (0.84, 0.64–1.10, <italic>P</italic> = 0.201) or critical COVID-19 (0.73, 0.51–1.03, <italic>P</italic> = 0.074) were detected. Our study revealed that tea intake could decrease the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, highlighting the potential preventive effect of tea consumption on COVID-19 transmission.</p>