2.4. Efficacy Assessment
sore throat, chills, feverishness, pain, cough, muscle pain, cold-like, febrile, sneezing/runny nose
SORE THROAT, SECONDARY
The primary outcome of this study was subjective symptoms of physical condition. During the study period, participants were asked to record their severity scores in diaries for subjective symptoms such as feverishness, chills, malaise, joint pain, muscle pain, sneezing/runny nose, stuffy nose, sore throat and cough. Participants rated each symptom on a 0–4 severity scale: (0) none, (1) almost none, (2) a little, (3) moderate, and (4) severe. The total score was summed for all subjective symptoms for each day. The onset of each symptom was given a score of 3 or 4. The total number of days, duration, total number of times and incidence of each symptom during the intake period were calculated. As an exploratory assessment after unblinding, the onset of cold-like symptoms was defined as a total score of 6 or more. Overall cold-like symptoms were analyzed, as was each symptom.The secondary outcome was febrile state. Participants recorded their body temperatures in their diaries. The number of days and participants with temperatures of 37.5 °C or higher during the intake period were calculated for each group.