Abstract

We studied daily micronutrient intake from vitamin-mineral supplements, health-related life style, clinical case of diseases and food frequency of the Korean middle-aged (40 - 59 yr, n = 404) to compare the characteristics of non-user (n = 270) and user (n = 134) of vitamin-mineral supplements. Rate of supplement use of the middle-aged was 33.2% and there was significant difference in education level (p = 0.0084) and family income (p = 0.0476) of user and nonuser. Smoking habit (p = 0.0844) and drinking frequency (p = 0.0606) tended to be lower in a supplement user than a non-user. The medical history of a case was significantly higher in users (67.9%) than in non-users (44.4%) (p = 0.001), which suggests that medical history is one of the important motivations of supplement use. Supplement users had the medical history of digestive disease (34.1%), anemia (11.0%) and hypertension (9.9%) in order. Vitamin C was the most frequently supplemented nutrient (81.3%) among vitamin-mineral supplement, and the next orders were vitamins E (73.1%), B2 (68.7%) and B6 (60.4%). Mean intakes of vitamin B1, iron, selenium, vitamin E, and vitamin C from supplement was 4,260%, 4,030%, 1,660% and 1,330% of RDA, respectively. The supplement users tended to consume most food items including milk & milk products (p < 0.01), rice (p < 0.01), grains (p < 0.05) and cookies (p < 0.01) less frequently than non-users. Conclusively, nutrient intake of vitamin B1, iron, selenium, vitamin E, and vitamin C from supplement was excessively high compared to RDA. We suggest that the toxic effect of excessive supplementation should be informed to supplement user and nutritional education should be focused on the optimal supplement dose.

• Keywords: vitamin-mineral supplement; middle-aged; life style; food frequency; toxicity