Dietary supplement use among Iranian adults: a study in northern Iran

This study aimed to investigate dietary supplement use among Iranian adults in northern Iran. A cross-sectional study was undertaken on randomly selected men and women in Guilan province, northern Iran. The study population was parents of children and adolescents studying in schools. Totally, 1,425 women and 676 men were studied and data on age, body weight, height, educational level, and supplement use was gathered using a self-administrated questionnaire. These data showed that supplement use was related to sex, body mass index, and educational levels in both sexes. Most common supplements used in this population were Iron, calcium, multivitamin/multiminerals and fish oils. These results showed that 13.3, 3.4, 2.2, and 1.1 % of the study men used iron, calcium, multivitamin/multimineral, and fish oil, respectively. In women, 27.1, 10.7, 5.1, and 5.5 % used Iron, calcium, multivitamin/multimineral, and fish oil, respectively. More educated men and women and those with more healthy weight were more likely to use any dietary supplement than the less educated and overweight/obese men and women. This study showed that iron was the most common dietary supplement in this study middle aged Iranians. Using the other supplements was mostly related to age, educational level, and body weight status in this population. These data indicated that dietary supplement use was inversely related to some health-related behaviors and socioeconomic factors.