Association between dietary supplements and frailty: a cross-sectional study using national survey data in South Korea

Abstract

We aimed to examine the association between the use of specific types of dietary supplements and frailty using cross-sectional, nationally representative survey data. Adults aged ≥50 years in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2018–2020 were included. We calculated a 46-item frailty index to assess frailty. In total, 27,384 older adults were included (mean age: 62.47 years; median frailty index: 0.12). Among them, 72% used at least one dietary supplement. The prevalence of dietary supplement use was higher among women than among men and in participants with higher socioeconomic status. Compared to non-users, users of dietary supplements had a healthier diet and nutrient intake, and lower levels of frailty. After adjusting for socioeconomic and dietary factors, users of vitamin C, red ginseng or calcium were found to be significantly less frail. Our findings indicate promising results concerning dietary supplement intake in managing frailty among older Korean adults.

Keywords:

• Cross-sectional studies
• dietary supplements
• frailty
• geriatric syndrome
• national health surveys

Acknowledgements

We thank the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency for providing information on the year of data collection and statistical guidance on the weighting procedures.

Author contributions

Conceptualisation, HK, HS and EL; methodology, HK, HS and EL; formal analysis, HK; resources, EL; writing – original draft preparation, HK; writing – review and editing, HS and EL; supervision, HS and EL; project administration, HK; funding acquisition, EL. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul National University Hospital (IRB No. E2212/002-002 and date of approval: 2022-12-09).

Consent form

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants to participate in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Research Ethics Review Committee approved the survey collection process. Personal data from the survey were de-identified before being made publicly available.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data used in this study are publicly available for research purposes in a de-identified fashion on the official KNHANES website (https://knhanes.kdca.go.kr/knhanes/eng/index.do).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT, The Ministry of Science and ICT) (No. 2022R1F1A1064147) and the four phases of the Brain Korea 21 program in 2022.