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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1493504
This article is part of the Research Topic Foods, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Products Treating the Diseases of the 21st Century: Moving from Traditional to Scientific Research: Volume II View all 6 articles

The association between the knowledge, perception and practice of dietary supplement among Chinese adults

Provisionally accepted
Din Son Tan Din Son Tan 1Xijie Wang Xijie Wang 1*Xuechen Zhao Xuechen Zhao 2Ai Zhao Ai Zhao 1
  • 1 Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2 Regenerative Bio Cooperation, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Rapid growth has been found in the market of dietary supplements (DS) in China.However, studies about the knowledge level, intentions and behavior related to DS remained limited in Chinese population. The current study aimed to explore the knowledge level, perception and practice towards DS among Chinese adults with crosssectional design among 1714 participants aged between 18 and 65 years. A total of 54.1% of participants reported purchasing supplements in the past six months. Knowledge levels were assessed with a score from 1 to 10 based on correct answers to 10 binary questions about supplements. Only 29.1% of participants answered 7 or more questions correctly, while 7.9% answered 3 or fewer questions correctly. Participants with high and middle knowledge levels were more likely to seek medical advice when experiencing discomfort symptoms and were less likely to choose DS, with corresponding odd ratios (ORs) of 1.58 (95% CI: 1.16, 2.13) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.52, 0.91) in high knowledge group, and ORs of 1.36 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.80) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.72, 1.30) in middle knowledge group (Pfor trend =0.003 and 0.028, respectively). No significant differences were found in motivation of DS use between knowledge levels. Although higher knowledge levels were associated with less spending on DS (OR high=0.69; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.99; OR middle=0.88; 95% CI: 0.64, 1.20; Pfor trend =0.038), it did not guarantee better and more accurate awareness towards DS use. In conclusion, there is a growing demand for supplements among Chinese adults, but a significant gap between knowledge and behavior exists, affecting decision-making behaviors regarding DS.

    Keywords: dietary supplement, Chinese adults, Nationwide cross-sectional study, nutrition knowledge, Behavior model

    Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 15 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tan, Wang, Zhao and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xijie Wang, Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100083, Beijing Municipality, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.