An educational intervention improved knowledge of dietary supplements in college students.

BACKGROUND: We have previously reported on the prevalence of dietary supplements among college students; it was deduced that their intake of supplements increased according to their grade (i.e., 13.1% in the first grade to 20.5% in the sixth grade). We also reported that some students had experienced adverse events in Japan due to their intake of these supplements. However, awareness of dietary supplements among college students remains limited, even among pharmaceutical students. Being appropriately educated about them is important for pharmaceutical students, both for themselves as well as for their future careers as pharmacists. METHODS: We conducted a lecture-based educational intervention about dietary supplements on 328 college students in Japan-184 from pharmaceutical science and 144 from environmental science or food and life science disciplines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an educational intervention on college students' understanding of dietary supplements. The intervention involved a lecture that covered the quality of dietary supplements, how they differed from drugs, and a summary of their adverse events. The lecture was evaluated using a 14-question questionnaire. We then compared the pre- and post-intervention responses to the same questionnaire using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The questions were assessed using a Likert scale that ranged from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"; the latter being the preferred answer. RESULTS: Before the intervention had taken place, the students' understanding of dietary supplements was shown to be deficient. Conversely, post-intervention, their knowledge levels had significantly improved, especially concerning agreement on whether "Dietary supplements are safe because they are just food items". Pre-intervention, 2.7% strongly agreed and 37.5% agreed; post-intervention, 1.2% strongly agreed and 15.6% agreed. On whether "Dietary supplements made from natural ingredients or herbs are safe", at the pre-intervention stage 2.8% strongly agreed and 44.0% agreed and post-intervention, 2.2% strongly agreed and 16.9% agreed. On whether "Dietary supplements made from food items are safe", 4.0% strongly agreed and 43.6% agreed pre-intervention and 0.9% strongly agreed and 16.6% agreed post-intervention. Despite there being a greater number of pharmaceutical students who had a correct understanding of dietary supplements before the intervention, these students still showed improvement after the lecture. CONCLUSION: An intervention in the form of a single educational lecture has the capacity to improve college students' understanding of dietary supplements. It is important for pharmacists to be appropriately educated about dietary supplements when they consult with patients. We will evaluate the long-term effects of the intervention on the alumni (pharmacists) in a subsequent study.

Concomitant Use of Dietary Supplements and Medicines among Preschool and School-Aged Children in Japan.

Dietary supplement use is widespread amongst the general population including in children and adolescents. The ingredients in dietary supplements can interact with medicines when patients take them concomitantly. However, the prevalence of the concomitant use of dietary supplements and medicines in Japan among children remains unclear. To clarify this issue, a nationwide internet survey was administered to 55,038 mothers (25 to 60 years old) of preschool- or school-aged children in Japan. Among them, 7.6% currently provide dietary supplements and 3.2% concomitantly provide dietary supplements and prescription or over-the-counter medicines to their children. The prevalence of concomitant use increased with the children's grade. Among 1057 mothers with 1154 children who were concomitantly using dietary supplements and medicines, 69.1% provided dietary supplements without physician consultation because they considered dietary supplements as only foods and therefore safe. Although the purpose of the use and types of dietary supplement differed between boys and girls, the most popular product was probiotics in both boys and girls. Among concomitant users, 8.3% of mothers gave dietary supplements for treatment of diseases and 4.9% mothers recognized the adverse events of dietary supplements in their child. The findings of this study suggest that mothers' knowledge about the risk of using dietary supplement with medicines is insufficient. Parental education about the safety of dietary supplements and potential risk of drug-supplement interaction is needed.

A Nationwide Survey of the Attitudes toward the Use of Dietary Supplements among Japanese High-School Students.

We previously studied the prevalence of dietary supplement use in Japanese high-school students by conducting a study on mothers. However, there is often a discrepancy between mothers' understanding and children's attitudes. Thus, we conducted an internet survey of high-school students to clarify their attitudes toward the use of dietary supplements. An invitation to the internet survey was e-mailed to registrants of a research company aged 15 to 18 years. A total of 1031 students (276 male, 755 female) answered the questionnaire on a first come, first served basis. The participants were classified according to the purchasers of their supplements: students who purchased supplements themselves were defined as active users, and others were defined as passive users. The prevalence of dietary supplement use was 30.8% in males and 26.7% in females. Among the users, 42.4% of males and 43.8% of females were active users. Males used supplements for health regardless of active or passive use. However, in females, more active users (40.9%) used supplements for weight loss than passive users (20.4%); the corresponding prevalence was 2.3% in our previous report on mothers' understanding of their daughters. The most frequently used source of information for active users was the internet, whereas for passive users it was family. The frequency of adverse events was 9.4% in males and 14.4% in females, with gastrointestinal symptoms being the most commonly experienced events. Our results suggest that dietary education, including healthy eating and the appropriate use of dietary supplements, should be provided to high-school students.