College Students More Apt to Reach for Supplements than Older Populations

College Students More Apt to Reach for Supplements than Older Populations

PULLMAN, Wash.--Kathy Beerman, Ph.D., of Washington State University, and colleagues conducted a survey to discover whether college students were more apt to use dietary supplements than older populations. In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of American College Health (50, 3:123-29, 2001), researchers explained that the use of non-vitamin, non-mineral (NVNM) dietary supplements may be higher among college students than older populations, and the types of NVNM products used in the college population also differs from older populations.

"Generally speaking, you would think these are young adults and they're healthy," Beerman noted. "But they use them for different reasons. The products they're using, like ergogenic aids and weight loss aids, were more popular in the college students, whereas other studies that have been done in older adult populations indicate concern about certain health conditions or chronic diseases."

Of the 272 students who took the survey, nearly half (132 students) reported using NVNM supplements during the 12 months prior. The survey also showed female students (51.2 percent) were slightly more likely to use supplements than male students (44.7 percent). The most common reasons cited for taking supplements were to promote good health, prevent disease or enhance immune function. The most frequently used supplements were echinacea, ginseng, St. John's wort, Ginkgo biloba, ephedra products, chamomile and garlic. Overall, 77.8 percent of those students who used NVNM supplements believed that the products were effective. The supplements with the greatest perceived effectiveness were kava (100 percent), ephedra products (96 percent), chamomile (89 percent), goldenseal (87 percent), echinacea (81 percent) and Ginkgo biloba (79 percent).

A few students (19) reported adverse events while they were taking supplements, although 11 of those continued use in spite of side effects. "The highest percent of students who reported negative effects were using ephedrine products," Beerman reported.

Just over one-third (38.6 percent) of the supplement users reported the media as their primary source of information, and only 9.8 percent reported receiving information about supplements from their health care professionals. In addition, of the 68 NVNM dietary supplement users who reported seeing a physician in the past 12 months, only 28 told their physician about taking supplements.

"College students may have a higher level of exposure and vulnerability to NVNM supplement marketing efforts on television, the Internet, and in popular magazines that target this particular group," researchers noted in their conclusion. "We also speculate that because college-age students are typically in good health, they are more likely to self-medicate with NVNM dietary supplements than to rely on more traditional pharmaceuticals."