Prevalence, attitudes and motivations concerning dietary supplements in sport intake among medical students

Abstract

Nowadays, because of irregular lifestyle, high level of stress dietary supplements (DS) are becoming more popular as a source of needful nutrients among millions of people all over the world. The main purpose of present study was to estimate prevalence of dietary supplement consumption in sport, motivation in DS usage and sources of information. Anonymous self-administered questionnaire was spread among students of medical faculty in the end of their fourth year of study. There were 218 students of the fourth year of the Medical Faculty, of which 60.1% were females and 39.9% were males. Males more often used or had been using dietary supplements than females. The most popular dietary supplement was whey protein.The most common aim among men was to build up muscle mass. It is possible to state conclusions that prevalence of using dietary supplement among students is similar to values reported previously in the literature. Males were definitely more often undertaking physical activity in the gym and that could be the reason why they were definitely more often using specific dietary supplements.