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TL;DR
It found no increased mortality during 4-day vitamin C administration, but a significant increase in deaths in the week after its abrupt termination.
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2 authors, 2 centres
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It found no increased mortality during 4-day vitamin C administration, but a significant increase in deaths in the week after its abrupt termination.
The analysis used Cox regression with two time periods to model mortality over the first 11 days after randomization. There was no significant difference in mortality between groups during the 4-day treatment period (RR = 0.97). In the week after treatment ended, there were 57 deaths in the vitamin C group versus 32 in the placebo group, yielding a significant rate ratio of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.2–2.9; p = 0.004). The authors conclude that the harm observed in the original LOVIT trial is attributable to the abrupt cessation of vitamin C, not its administration.