Effect of Dietary Supplements on Vitamin and Mineral Intake Among Koreans: Data From the 2018-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A growing number of Koreans are taking vitamins and minerals as dietary supplements.
However, whether the nutrients consumed through these supplements meet the recommended daily intake is unclear. To address this issue, we analyzed the data of 15,532 people who participated in The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2018 and 2020. The survey assessed the reference nutrient intake and estimated average requirement of the participants, both supplement users and non-users. Our findings revealed that: 1) the percentage of supplement users increased from 61% in 2018 to 75% in 2020, with the highest growth rate seen in probiotics users; 2) non-users of supplements had a lower intake of individual vitamins and minerals than supplement users; and 3) odds ratio (OR) analysis indicated that most of the nutrients examined showed OR less than one, meaning that the majority of Koreans are not meeting the recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals, even with the use of dietary supplements. These results suggest that more attention should be paid to the recommended intake of nutrients and dietary supplements to meet these requirements.