Vitamin/mineral supplements usage pattern in Taipei Medical College students

A questionnaire assessing health status, vitamin/mineral supplement use and nutritional knowledge was investigated in Taipei Medical College students. One thousand sixty-seven participants were selected from all freshman and other grades. The results showed that the self-report risk of disease in daily smokers and drinkers were higher than non-smokers and non-drinkers (p = 0.013 and p = 0.022). Ten questions of nutritional knowledge were tested and 51.2% of the students had the scores of 6-7, women had higher value than men (p = 0.0117). Two hundred fifty-six of respondents (24%) were the vitamin/mineral supplement users. The most commonly used supplements were multivitamin and single dose of Vitamin C (56% and 36%, respectively). There was no relationship between sex, grades and number of supplements taken.