Comparison of a Medication Inventory and a Dietary Supplement Interview in Assessing Dietary Supplement Use in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

• Published in: Infectious diseases Vol. 2016; no. 2016; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Faurot, Keturah R., Siega-Riz, Anna Maria, Gardiner, Paula, Rivera, Josέ O., Young, Laura A., Poole, Charles, Whitsel, Eric A., González, Hector M., Chirinos-Medina, Diana A., Talavera, Gregory A., Castañeda, Sheila F., Daviglus, Martha L., Barnhart, Janice, Giacinto, Rebeca E., Van Horn, Linda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Libertas Academica 16.02.2016; SAGE Publishing; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd. (UK); Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Comparative analysis; Dietary supplements; Evaluation; Food and nutrition; Hispanic Americans; Original Research; United States; dietary supplements; epidemiology; measurement methodology; Hispanics/Latinos
• ISSN: 1177-3936; 1177-3936; 1178-6337
• DOI: 10.4137/IMI.S25587

Although dietary supplement use is common, its assessment is challenging, especially among ethnic minority populations such as Hispanics/ Latinos. Using the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) (n = 16,415), this report compares two strategies for capturing dietary supplement use over a 30-day period: a medication-based inventory and a nutrition-based dietary supplement interview. Age-standardized prevalence was calculated across multiple dietary supplement definitions, adjusted with survey/nonresponse weights. The prevalence of dietary supplement use was substantially higher as measured in the dietary supplement interview, compared to the medication inventory: for total dietary supplements (39% vs 26%, respectively), for nonvitamin, nonmineral supplements (24% vs 12%), and for botanicals (9.2% vs 4.5%). Concordance between the two assessments was fair to moderate (Cohen's kappa: 0.31-0.52). Among women, inclusion of botanical teas increased the prevalence of botanical supplement use from 7% to 15%. Supplement assessment that includes queries about botanical teas yields more information about patient supplement use.