Welcome to the Immune Defence study website

This website has details about the interventions used in the Immune Defence study. This website will be updated over the next year, as we learn more about how and why the interventions worked.

Overview of the study

Before this study, there was not much evidence about whether using nasal sprays, or advice about physical activity and stress reduction would help with infections like colds, coughs, flu, chest infections etc.

What we have shown (in what we think is the largest study ever done), is that both types of interventions worked, but in different ways. Use of either of the nasal sprays, First Defence or saline, significantly reduced the length of peoples’ infections (e.g. colds and coughs). Access to web advice on increasing physical activity and stress reduction significantly lowered the number of infections people had over 6 months.

Both types of intervention (nasal sprays and advice about activity and stress) significantly reduced severe symptoms and antibiotic use.

Interventions used

Below are buttons that link to the advice we gave for all the groups in the study. This includes general advice about these infections and how the interventions might help.

We also show the advice that was given to people in the nasal spray groups. This advice was designed to support people to use the nasal sprays in the best way possible.

We are not able to share the full physical activity and stress reduction intervention yet but we will keep updating what we can provide on these interventions over the next year.