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Developing a questionnaire to assess reasons for dietary supplement use. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) pilot study 2006

With about half the adult population now taking one or more dietary supplements, it is important to improve the health community's understanding of the motivations behind why people are taking dietary supplements. Since publicly available data on reasons for supplement use are limited, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) added open‐ended pilot study questions asking respondents what the reason or reasons were for taking each dietary supplement reported during the interview. Interviewers recorded verbatim what the respondent said over a 9 month interval. From the 2,626 answers obtained, answer categories were then developed, and in 2007 NHANES will be asking a categorical question to respondents on the reasons they are taking supplements. Based on the preliminary pilot results, 17% of respondents reported taking supplements to get additional nutrients in the diet. The next three most popular responses were to maintain health (8%), for bone health/strong bones/osteoporosis (7%), and for heart health/cholesterol (6.7%). Improved understanding of the reasons that people take specific dietary supplements will provide valuable data to the nutrition community to better target public health messages to people possibly overusing supplements as well as to people whose nutritional status would be improved by taking dietary supplements.