Dietary supplements use in Korean elderly outpatients

초록

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of supplements use and association of demographic, health-related and dietary characteristics with supplements use in age-related diseases outpatients aged 50 years over. A case-control study was conducted and the subjects were 1703 age-related diseases outpatients aged 50 years over. Information about supplement use, demographic and health-related characteristics were collected by a standardized in-person interview using a questionnaire. Subjects were asked their use of supplements at least for a month in the past year. Dietary intake was collected using FFQ and 24 hr recall method. Biochemical and anthropometric data were collected from medical record. The statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 10.0 program. Supplements use was reported by 49.3% of the subjects(males 52.1%, females 46.9%). There was a significant difference in sex, marital status, education level, living supporter, and socioeconomic status between supplement users and nonusers; more man, less widow, higher education, self-living supporter, and higher socioeconomic status were associated with supplements use. Most commonly used supplements were Chinese medicine(17.1%), multivitamin(17.1%), and geigogi(13.5%) in case group and multivitamin(18.5%) and Chinese medicine(16.7%) in control group. There was a significant difference in food habits, health status, nutrition risk factor, and nutritional knowledge between supplement users and nonusers or between case and control groups. Therefore, elderly needs guidance from dieticians or health professionals to make informed choices on whether to take dietary supplements in terms of individualized assessment and scientific evidence of efficacy and safety.