Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Knowledge, awareness and practices regarding dietary supplements in Jordan

Haneen A Basheer¹ , Lina Elsalem², Deema Jaber¹, Shorouk M Ibraheem¹, Hamza Alhamad¹, Ahmad A Jum'ah³

¹Faculty of Pharmacy, Zarqa University, PO Box 132222, Zarqa 13132; ²Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine; ³Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan.

For correspondence:- Haneen Basheer Email: hbasheer@zu.edu.jo

Accepted: 23 February 2021 Published: 31 March 2021

Citation: Basheer HA, Elsalem L, Jaber D, Ibraheem SM, Alhamad H, Jum'ah AA. Knowledge, awareness and practices regarding dietary supplements in Jordan. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(3):649-659 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i3.30

© 2021 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigative the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs pertaining to dietary supplements (DS) use in Jordan.

Methods: Participants were enrolled from four main cities in Jordan, viz, Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, and Mafraq, to fill a self-administered questionnaire which explored the objectives of the study.

Results: Most participants (80 %) knew what DS are. The prevalence of DS use was high (62.1 %) and significantly higher among females (p = 0.004). The most commonly consumed DS among users were in the form of multivitamins (93.0 %), vitamin D (65.8 %) and vitamin C (57.6 %). About half of the participants (46.2 %) believed that DS have no side effects. The most frequent source of information for participants about DS was from non-reliable references, such as social media. Self-prescription was the most common approach by DS users for supplement intake. Finally, the common hypothesis of associating healthy habits with DS use was not found to be true among Jordanians.

Conclusion: These results highlight the need to implement appropriate awareness programs for the public regarding DS benefits and hazards, and especially to advise the public not to initiate DS use without first consulting an appropriate healthcare professional.

Keywords: Dietary supplements, Vitamins, Self-prescription