Abstract
Background
Dietary supplements, including multivitamins/minerals, are commonly reported by adults,
yet little is known about multivitamin/mineral use in relation to information seeking,
cancer-specific outcome expectancies, and cancer beliefs.
Objective
To examine the relationship of heath information seeking, beliefs about cancer, and
outcome expectancies with multivitamin/mineral use within a national sample.
Design
A secondary analysis of data collected by The Health Information National Trends Survey
(HINTS) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (HINTS-FDA 2015) was conducted.
HINTS-FDA 2015 evaluated information seeking, beliefs about cancer, and health behaviors
and was a self-administered, two-stage mail survey sent to a random sample of US postal
addresses stratified by county smoking rates.
Participants
Adult household residents were invited to participate, resulting in a 33% response
rate (n=3,738).
Main outcome measures
Participants self-reported use of multivitamin/mineral products.
Statistical analyses
Adjusting for covariates (demographics, single-ingredient and herbal supplement use)
weighted stepwise binary logistic regression was used to examine correlates of self-reported
multivitamin/mineral use.
Results
Intake was associated with less than a high school education, having health insurance,
and single-ingredient and herbal supplement use. Trust in health organizations (odds
ratio [OR]=1.67, P<0.001) and the expectancy that cancer could be avoided with dietary supplements (OR=1.76,
P<0.001) correlated with use. Agreement that supplements labeled as “anticarcinogenic”
could treat (OR=3.07, P<0.001) or prevent cancer (OR=6.06, P<0.001) correlated with multivitamin/mineral use. Fatalistic beliefs (P<0.001) and negative information-seeking experiences (P<0.001) were associated with slightly lower odds of use.
Conclusions
Despite leading health organizations’ discouragement of dietary supplements for cancer
prevention, this study found that trust in health organizations and outcome expectancies
were associated with multivitamin/mineral use. This divergence presents a need to
explore how dietary supplement evidence based recommendations can be translated and
disseminated for the public.
Keywords
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Biography
K. L. Knippen is an assistant professor, Food & Nutrition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.
Biography
R. Mahas is an assistant professor of nursing and public health, Madonna University, Livonia, MI.
Biography
E. Van Wasshenova is an assistant professor, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, MI.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 13, 2020
Accepted:
December 7,
2019
Received:
August 12,
2019
Footnotes
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT There is no funding to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
