초록
Vitamin mineral supplement usage by self-prescription is popular behavior among adolescents. This study was conducted to investigate the behaviors of vitamin·mineral supplement usage and the relationship between demographic variables and supplement usage by healthy adolescents. Nine hundred seventy two boys and girls, aged 13-18 years, attending general middle or high schools were chosen from various cities and rural communities in Korea. As a result, vitamin·]mineral supplements were taken by 31.3% of subjects. Users tended to take vitamin·mineral supplements more frequently when they were healthy than when they suffered from disease. The taking period of supplements was different according to school type such as middle or high school(p<.05), sex(p<.001) and residence of subjects(p<.01). The main information source of supplements was newspaper/magazine/TV, and it was affected by sex(p<.05) and residence(p<.01). Vitamin·mineral supplements were generally recommended by their mothers instead of health professionals. The commonly cited taking reason of supplements was affected by sex(p<.01)and socioeconomic status of family(p<.05). The frequently responded effect obtained from supplement use was recovery from fatigue and it was different according to sex(p<.01). The major mentioned reason of not taking vitamin·mineral supplements by non-users was 'I eat a balanced diet'. The most frequently consumed supplements were vitamin C, followed by multi-vitamins supplements, and this pattern was different according to school type(p<.001), sex(p<.01) and residence(p<.05). These findings show that the behaviors of vitamin·mineral supplement usage by subjects are not resonable, and their supplement usage tends to be affected by demographic variables. Therefore, nutritional understanding and education that are intended to form the resonable behaviors toward vitamin·mineral supplement usage of adolescents should be provided with considering the relationship between demographic variables and supplement usage.