Dietary supplement use among seniors: the opinions of pharmacists

Introduction
Treating dietary supplements only as foodstuffs may lead to their misuse and consequently to adverse effects and interactions. Pharmacists play a crucial role in controlling the correct intake of dietary supplements by seniors. The aim of the study was to assess pharmacists’ opinions on dietary supplement use by seniors and to perform a qualitative analysis of dietary supplements available on the Polish market.

Material and methods
The study included 140 employees of pharmacies located across Poland. The research method was a diagnostic survey using an author-constructed questionnaire sent to pharmacists electronically via a Google Forms questionnaire. Additionally, qualitative analysis of the selected dietary supplements was performed.

Results
Pharmacists confirmed an alarming trend among seniors for abuse of supplements (42.9%). The majority of pharmacists (53.6%) agreed with the view that dietary supplements may constitute a bene­ficial supplement to the diet. The pharmacists in the study unequivocally confirmed that misuse of dietary supplements may pose a potentially hazardous health risk (77.2%). Qualitative analysis of the selected dietary supplements demonstrated that individual preparations contained between three and nineteen active ingredients. Half of the products analysed exceeded the reference intake values of one or more active ingredients. Not all products were included in the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS) Registry.

Conclusions
Effective monitoring of the constantly evolving patterns of dietary supplement use, as well as their potential interactions with other substances, requires active supervision and an evidence-based approach to ensure consumer health safety and high quality of products available on the market.