Dietary supplement use in later life

Abstract

Describes self-reported dietary supplement use among elderly people in the UK and explores the association between supplement use and socioeconomic, physical and dietary factors. A three-phase survey incorporating face-to-face interviews, self-completed four-day dietary diaries with a food frequency questionnaire and follow-up face-to-face interviews took place in urban Nottingham and rural Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. A total of 957 elderly people (aged over 65) were randomly selected from general practitioner lists. A total of 36 per cent of the urban respondents and 41 per cent of rural respondents were taking at least one dietary supplement. Respondents who did not smoke were of a higher social class and had more qualifications were the most likely to take supplements. Fish oil was the most commonly taken supplement, followed by multivitamins, garlic tablets and vitamin C. The mean dietary intake of all respondents was above the reference nutrient intakes (RNIs) for nutrients studied. The diets of supplement users, excluding nutrients derived from supplementation, contained more iron, vitamin C, fibre, folate and oily fish than non-users. Dietary supplement usage is widespread among the UK elderly, although supplement users within this sample do not appear to have diets which warrant supplementation to meet RNIs in the nutrients studied. Many advantages are, however, reported of consuming fish oils, garlic and higher intakes of anti-oxidants.

Dietary supplements: Characteristics of supplement users in New Zealand

“…Consistent with other studies the odds of being a dietary supplement user were significantly higher in people who had school qualifications and post-school qualifications compared with those who did not have any qualifications. 1,9,17,18,22,23 Although supplement users have higher educational levels, the correlation between supplement use and nutrition knowledge has been shown in other studies to be zero 24 or negative. 25 A higher level of education is not necessarily associated with a sound knowledge of nutritional need.…”

“…The prevalence of using a supplement in the previous year was highest in the [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] year age group and the prevalence decreased with increasing age in both males and females. Results from other studies have shown an opposite trend to this with supplement use being lower in the younger adult groups, 2,16 although the data collected in 2000 by MacLennan and colleagues from Australia showed a similar trend with the highest use in the 15-34 year age group.…”