IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i3p374-d201633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dietary Supplement Use Among Chinese Primary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Hunan Province

Author

Listed:
  • Hanmei Liu

    (Department of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China
    The first two authors contributed equally to this paper.)

  • Shiya Zhang

    (Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China
    The first two authors contributed equally to this paper.)

  • Hanshuang Zou

    (Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

  • Yuanlin Pan

    (Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

  • Qiping Yang

    (Department of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

  • Yufeng Ouyang

    (Department of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

  • Jing Luo

    (Department of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

  • Qian Lin

    (Department of Nutrition Science and Food Hygiene, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Rd, Changsha 410078, China)

Abstract

Dietary supplement use is increasing globally, especially among children. However, few studies have been conducted to examine dietary supplement use among Chinese children. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of dietary supplement use and the associated factors in primary school students. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four primary schools in Hunan province, China. A total of 706 Chinese parents/caregivers of school children aged 6–12 years old were enrolled. Self-administrated questionnaires were used to collect information about the children’s dietary supplement use, and their socio-demographic characteristics. The prevalence of dietary supplement use in primary school students was 20.4%. Calcium (16.7%), vitamin C (9.2%), and vitamin D (8.5%) were the most commonly used types of dietary supplement. The main reasons for parents/caregivers to purchase dietary supplements for their children were immunity improvement (43.6%), and for growth promotion (36.5%). Some caregivers (26.4%) purchased dietary supplements online, including from dubious or unknown sellers. However, 37.5% of caregivers did not receive formal guidance on supplementation even if they purchased their supplements through formal channels. Parents/caregivers were unclear about the appropriate choices for children’s dietary supplement use. Guidelines and counseling regarding dietary supplements for children may be helpful in public health work.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanmei Liu & Shiya Zhang & Hanshuang Zou & Yuanlin Pan & Qiping Yang & Yufeng Ouyang & Jing Luo & Qian Lin, 2019. "Dietary Supplement Use Among Chinese Primary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Hunan Province," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:3:p:374-:d:201633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/374/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/374/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Glavas, Charmaine & Mortimer, Gary & Ding, Han & Grimmer, Louise & Vorobjovas-Pinta, Oscar & Grimmer, Martin, 2023. "How entrepreneurial behaviors manifest in non-traditional, heterodox contexts: Exploration of the Daigou phenomenon," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    2. Caihong Xiang & Jing Luo & Guilian Yang & Minghui Sun & Hanmei Liu & Qiping Yang & Yufeng Ouyang & Yue Xi & Cuiting Yong & Muhammad Jamal Khan & Qian Lin, 2022. "Dietary Supplement Use during Pregnancy: Perceptions versus Reality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Orkut Koç & Merve Tosyalı & Şule Gökçe & Feyza Koç, 2024. "Use of Dietary Supplements and Influencing Factors in Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-12, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:3:p:374-:d:201633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.