THE USE OF NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT IN ROMANIAN PATIENTS – ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
DAN NICOLAE PĂDURARU 1,2#, FLORENTINA COMAN 1, EMMA ADRIANA OZON 1#, FLORENTINA GHERGHICEANU 1, OCTAVIAN ANDRONIC 1,2*, DANIEL ION 1,2, MARIUS STĂNESCU 3, ALEXANDRA BOLOCAN 1,2
1.The University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest
2.Emergency University Hospital of Bucharest
3.Central University Emergency Military Hospital “Carol Davila”, 134 Calea Plevnei, Bucharest, Romania
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Taking into account that an increasing number of patients ask for nutritional supplement’ to support their chronic treatment, consisting into products made of plants or vitamins and minerals and starting from the premise that they do not induce side effects, so their administration is well tolerated, this paper aims to assess: the factors that make the patient use nutritional supplements, the main categories of nutritional supplements that are used by the patient, the patients knowledge about the legislative regulations on food supplements and the patients’ trust in the efficacy and safety of these products. The population included in the study consisted of 372 patients living in the urban area of Bucharest, Romania, who answered a questionnaire related to the subject presented previously, taking into account variables such as age, gender, income level, educational level. Following the responses obtained, we report that the use of nutritional supplements faces many problems such as the abuse of these products without the recommendation of a health specialist (physician or pharmacist), the possibility of online purchase from unsafe sources, the lack of information regarding the indications of the food supplement, efficacy and safety of these products, the poorly known legislative regulations of food supplements.
