Dietary Supplement Use Among Students of Pharmacy Colleges in the City of Karachi, Pakistan: Prevalence, Opinions, and Attitudes

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted among pharmacy students in Karachi, Pakistan, to document prevalence, opinions and their attitudes toward dietary supplement (DS) use. A cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of four months. The study used a specially formulated dietary supplement questionnaire (DSQ). The prevalence of DS use was reported at 48.2%: 51% in males and 47.3% in females. Physician recommendation was cited by majority of students as reason for DS use (n = 153, 25%). Most of the students used multivitamins (n = 315, 51.5%). The average monthly cost attributed to DS use was reported at PKR 1,396.3 (USD 13.55). For every year increase in age, DS use in students decreased (OR = 0.917). Male students were more likely to recommend DS use (OR = 1.425). The most noteworthy finding was the cautious approach of students as the majority reported DS use only upon recommendation of a physician.

KEYWORDS:

• attitudes
• dietary supplements
• health promotion
• nutraceuticals
• opinions
• Pakistan
• pharmaceuticals
• pharmacy students
• prevalence
• social pharmacy

Acknowledgment

This manuscript is a research collaboration among professionals from two universities in Karachi, Pakistan, and a public-sector university in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, under the research initiative program Evidence Based Improvement (EBI) (Abbas, 2014; Naqvi, 2016).

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

About the authors

Atta Abbas Naqvi (AAN) conceived the idea with Rizwan Ahmad (RA). Both authors developed DSQ and carried out its validation with assistance from Fatima Zehra (FZ) and Raafia Yousuf (RY). FZ also contributed to developing the element of costing of dietary supplement in DSQ and calculated the costs in PKR as well as USD. FZ also contributed in manuscript writing and editing. RY, Bharti Kachela (BK) and Muhammad Nehal Nadir (MNN) obtained study approval, carried out data collection, entered and analyzed the data. All authors also assisted in validating the results section as well as manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was sought or obtained for the study.