title: Physician-patient communication about dietary supplements.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Describe the content and frequency of provider-patient dietary supplement discussions during primary care office visits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Inductive content analysis of 1477 transcribed audio-recorded office visits to 102 primary care providers was combined with patient and provider surveys. Encounters were collected in Los Angeles, CA (2009-2010), geographically diverse practice settings across the United States (2004-2005), and Sacramento, CA (1998-1999).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Providers discussed 738 dietary supplements during encounters with 357 patients (24.2% of all encounters in the data). They mentioned: (1) reason for taking the supplement for 46.5% of dietary supplements; (2) how to take the supplement for 28.2%; (3) potential risks for 17.3%; (4) supplement effectiveness for 16.7%; and (5) supplement cost or affordability for 4.2%. Of these five topics, a mean of 1.13 (SD=1.2) topics were discussed for each supplement. More topics were reviewed for non-vitamin non-mineral supplements (mean 1.47 (SD=1.2)) than for vitamin/mineral supplements (mean 0.99 (SD=1.1); p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While discussions about supplements are occurring, it is clear that more discussion might be needed to inform patient decisions about supplement use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physicians could more frequently address topics that may influence patient dietary supplement use, such as the risks, effectiveness, and costs of supplements.
authors: Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. dtarn@mednet.ucla.edu
authors: Derjung M
authors: DM
authors: Tarn
authors: Debora A
authors: DA
authors: Paterniti
authors: Jeffrey S
authors: JS
authors: Good
authors: Ian D
authors: ID
authors: Coulter
authors: James M
authors: JM
authors: Galliher
authors: Richard L
authors: RL
authors: Kravitz
authors: Arun S
authors: AS
authors: Karlamangla
authors: Neil S
authors: NS
authors: Wenger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002140:California; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003657:Decision Making; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States