Abstract
The aim of this paper is to determine the associated factors that influence students’ decision to have a dietary supplement in their daily intake. The participants for this study are bachelor degree students in three Terengganu local universities. Data were obtained through online questionnaires. Among 406 respondents, 126 (30.9%) are currently using dietary supplements. The prevalence of dietary supplement used does not differ significantly between males and females. However, most respondents claimed decreases in their Body Mass Index - and it is higher in non-associated science students as compared to science-associated students. The most used sources of information are the internet, and the most popular places to obtain their supplement are pharmacy and drugstore. Furthermore, the main reason for dietary supplement consumption is to maintain their health level, and most of them consumed only one supplement. Results of this study extend and provide additional information to the existing research by extending the area of research and beneficial to the supplement industry, especially in Terengganu. However, future research in this area is recommended to expand in other area and population in Malaysia. Therefore, supplement consumption among university students is still controllable.
Highlights
People have been widely exposed to the importance of supplement through the media presence
Each of the factor of dietary supplement consumption has been analysed by using SPSS software version 24.0 to test its reliability
A survey on the prevalence of dietary supplement intake among Bachelor Degree students from public universities in Terengganu has been conducted, and the results found that 30.9 percent (31%) of the students are currently consuming dietary supplements
Summary
People have been widely exposed to the importance of supplement through the media presence. Especially young adults with hectic schedules, will substitute the missing nutrient in their diet with the dietary supplement. Based on the current research, supplement intake may occasionally be uncontrolled without any supervisory and may affect the consumers’ health. There are ample shreds of evidence on the fact that dietary supplements have been used without any consultation from the medical professionals and people are unaware of the side effects. The utmost factor that triggers this study to be conducted is that the researcher intends to investigate the relationship between dietary supplement intake among students and its associated factors. The consumption of supplement has become uncontrollable, and people consume it without any further justification or serious reasons (Barnes et al, 2016). The consumption of the dietary supplement is increasing in developing countries, whereby 75% of individuals consume more than one type of supplement at one time (Bessada et al, 2018)
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