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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Characteristics of older dietary supplement users
— review of the literature | | Author(s) | Sonya Brownie |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 24.2, June 2005 |
| Publisher | Blackwell Publishing, June 2005 |
| Pages | pp 77-86 |
| Source | http://www.cota.org.au / http://www.blackwellpublishingasia.com |
| Keywords | Nutrition ; Drugs ; Alternative medicine ; Health [elderly] ; Social surveys ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Published literature reports rates of dietary supplement usage by people aged 60+ ranging from 16% to 60%. Prevalence figures are dependent on the population studied and the method of data collection. In general, older supplement users are female, Caucasian and well-educated, with healthier lifestyle practices than non-supplement users; they are less likely to be overweight or to smoke. Neither income nor self-rated health status are reliable predictors of supplement use in this group. Current patterns of supplement use by older people reveal that although they consume a range of products, they do not supplement with nutrients that are of particular benefit to them. Most commonly consumed by this age group are multivitamins, vitamin C and vitamin F preparations. There is insufficient data to quantify dosage, frequency and duration of their supplement use. Obtaining this information and data about herbal medicine use is an important step towards minimising the risk of drug-nutrient-herbal interactions, as would be identifying those health professionals who monitor the appropriateness and safety of supplement use. This systematic review of the literature published between 1992 and 2003 aims to measure the patterns of dietary supplement use by community-living individuals aged 60+, and to profile the characteristics of older supplement users. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050905201 A |
| Classmark | CF: LLD: LK3: CC: 3F: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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