Prevalence of Vitamin-mineral Supplements Use and Associated Factors Among Young Malaysians

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence and associated factors of vitamin-mineral supplementsuse among Management and Science University students. The cross-sectional study protocol was approved by theEthics and Research Committee and questionnaires were distributed randomly using simple random samplingto students from all faculties and consent was obtained. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 13. Totalnumber of the participants in this study is 105. More than half of them were female, older than 20 years of ageand Malay (58.1%, 61.9 and 61.9% respectively). The prevalence of vitamin-mineral supplement use was 43%,the main reasons being ‘to maintain good health’ 80%, followed by ‘to ensure adequate nutrition’ (10.5%).There was a significant positive association with monthly household income and BMI (P=0.039; P=0.048), withsignificant dependence on race and knowledge about vitamin-mineral supplements (P=0.002). There was asignificant difference between medical and health sciences as compared to non-medical and health science faculties(p =0.05). The conclusion is that although the prevalence of vitamin-mineral supplement use among universitystudents is relatively high, many of them do not have accurate information about supplements. Therefore, thereis a need to provide them with education and access to scientific and unbiased information.