Dietary supplement use in elementary school children: a Japanese web-based survey

Table 2 Types of dietary supplements used by children

	Number and percentage of supplement users^a
	n	(%)
Any type of dietary supplement	333	(6.8)
NVNM^b	248	(5.0)
Amino acids or protein	68	(1.4)
n–3 fatty acids or fish oil	54	(1.0)
Botanicals	38	(0.8)
Probiotics	47	(1.0)
Others	43	(0.9)
VM^b	108	(2.2)
Multivitamins-minerals	41	(0.8)
Multivitamins	42	(0.9)
Multi-minerals	16	(0.3)
Single vitamin^c	10	(0.2)
Single mineral^d	12	(0.2)

NVNM non-vitamin, non-mineral supplements, VM vitamin or mineral supplements
^aPercentage of supplement users was calculated as follows: (users of each type of dietary supplement)/(total study participants [n = 4933])
^bTotal number of users of each type of non-vitamin, non-mineral supplement does not equal 248 because some children used more than one type of dietary supplement. Similarly, total number of users of each type of vitamin or mineral dietary supplement does not equal 108 because some children used more than one type of dietary supplement
^cSingle vitamins included vitamin B-group vitamins and vitamin C
^dSingle minerals included calcium and zinc

ISSN: 1347-4715