title: Vitamin use and beliefs among students at a Malaysian university.
abstract: A questionnaire was administered in class to a sample of physical education students at a Malaysian University in order to determine their beliefs and use patterns regarding vitamin supplementation. About a quarter of the subjects (24.6%) had practised vitamin supplementation for the past two years prior to the study, 14.9% of them being females as opposed to only 9.7% males. The most frequently used vitamin supplements, in rank order, were multivitamins (used by 57.6%), vitamin C (24.2%), the B-Complex vitamins (9.1%), and vitamin E (6.1%). Among vitamin supplementeers, the most frequently cited reasons for using vitamin supplements, in rank order, were 'to supplement the daily diet' (33.3%), 'to prevent colds' (27.3%), and 'to prevent fatigue or lethargy' (21.2%). Among non-supplementeers, the three reasons most frequently mentioned for not using vitamin supplements were 'vitamin needs are adequately supplied by daily meals' (50.5%), 'I am healthy enough and therefore I do not need extra vitamins' (27.2%), and 'fear of insidious side effects' (9.9%). In general, both supplementeers and non-supplementeers tended to believe in the purported health benefits of vitamin supplementation. However, on the whole, supplementeers were willing to change their supplementation habits.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Educational Studies, University of Pertanian Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor.
authors.lastname: Mazlan Bin Yong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014815:Vitamins
chemical_list: D014815:Vitamins