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  • Original Article
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Minerals, trace elements, Vit. D and bone health

Trends in vitamin, mineral and dietary supplement use in Switzerland. The CoLaus study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 71, pages 122–127 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives:

Vitamin/mineral (VMS) and dietary supplements (DS) use is common in Switzerland, but nothing is known regarding the factors associated with their initiation, discontinuation or continuation of intake.

Subjects/methods:

Prospective study conducted between 2003–2006 and 2009–2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland among 4676 participants (2525 women, age range 35–75 years). VMS were defined as single or multivitamin/multimineral preparations; DS were defined as any dietary supplement.

Results:

VMS use was 20.6% at baseline and 20.3% at follow-up (P=0.69): 559 (12.0%) participants discontinued; 545 (11.7%) initiated and 404 (8.6%) continued VMS use. On multivariable analysis, men had a lower relative risk ratio (RRR) of discontinuing, initiation or continuing; older age and being physically active were associated with a higher RRR of initiation or continuing; lower education and higher body mass index were associated with a lower RRR of discontinuing or continuing of VMS. DS use decreased from 10.4 to 6.8% (P<0.001): 405 (8.7%) participants discontinued; 239 (5.1%) initiated and 81 (1.7%) continued DS use. On multivariable analysis, men had a lower RRR of discontinuing, initiation or continuing; older age had a higher RRR of initiation, discontinuing or continuing; being physically active was associated with a higher RRR of initiation or continuing; Swiss citizens and former smokers had a higher RRR of discontinuing.

Conclusions:

VMS use is stable in the Lausanne population, whereas DS use appears to be decreasing. Individuals can be categorized either as users or non-users depending on the study period, and consistent users are only a small fraction of prevalent users.

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Acknowledgements

The CoLaus study was and is supported by research grants from GlaxoSmithKline (no grant number), the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne (no grant number), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants number 33CSCO-122661, 33CS30-139468 and 33CS30-148401). The funding sources had no involvement in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Author contributions

PMV designed and conducted research, analysed data and wrote paper; PV and GW provided essential materials and revised the article for important intellectual content. PMV had primary responsibility for final content, had full access to the data and is the guarantor of the study. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, BH10-642, Internal Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

    P Marques-Vidal, P Vollenweider & G Waeber

Authors
  1. P Marques-Vidal
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  2. P Vollenweider
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  3. G Waeber
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P Marques-Vidal.

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Competing interests

PV and GW received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Bern, Switzerland); GlaxoSmithKline (Philadelphia, PA, USA) and the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland) to conduct the CoLaus study. PMV declares no conflict of interest.

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Marques-Vidal, P., Vollenweider, P. & Waeber, G. Trends in vitamin, mineral and dietary supplement use in Switzerland. The CoLaus study. Eur J Clin Nutr 71, 122–127 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.137

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