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Nutrition, Vitamins, Supplements for Seniors
Program Helps Low-Income Seniors Use Dietary
Supplements Wisely
By Becky Ham, Science Writer
Health Behavior News Service
June 14, 2006 - Five short classes about dietary supplements,
delivered alongside a hot meal, helped a group of low-income older North
Carolinians to safely increase their vitamin use, according to a new
study.
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Participants in the program took more multivitamins
and calcium supplements and were more likely to read the labels on
dietary supplements than adults who did not take the classes. The
program also persuaded more people to carry a list of their medications
and discuss supplement use with their doctors.
Although the overall effects seem small, study
authors Roger Mitchell, Ph.D. and colleagues at North Carolina State
University view the results as encouraging, Mitchell said.
The number of people who said they talked to their
doctors about supplement use increased by 12 percent in the group taking
the classes, compared with 3 percent in the group who did not get the
educational program. The report appears in the journal Health Education
& Behavior.
The program also worked for those older adults who
might be in greatest need of change, Mitchell said. For example, 19
percent of people who did not use calcium supplements at the beginning
of study said they took the supplements often or almost always after
participating in the classes. Only 7 percent of people in the comparison
group made a similar change.
The study included 703 low-income, older women and
men residents who ate communal meals as part of the North Carolina
Cooperative Extension program. The participants were randomly divided
into two groups. One group participated in the supplement education
classes dubbed Pills, Potions and Powders while the other group
attended sessions about weight management and exercise.
The extension program offered the supplement
program because calcium and vitamin deficiencies are common among older
adults who might participate in the communal meals. Older adults who are
less educated and have lower incomes than some of their peers are less
likely to use dietary supplements, Mitchell and colleagues say.
However herbal supplements are widely used by the
elderly, even those with low incomes, the researchers say.
As people get older and have a number of ailments,
medication doesn't always help and people resort to trying out herbal
supplements. There is the notion that anything herbal is natural and
cannot be harmful, said Nadine Sahyoun, Ph.D., an expert in elder
nutrition at the University of Maryland.
Sahyoun said that older people with higher incomes
tend to use herbal supplements as preventive medicine, while poorer
adults may use them as a substitute for traditional medicines.
Mitchell said the education programs like the one
studied could help older adults become savvier about herbal supplements.
Given the small amount of discretionary funds that
low-income older adults have, the savings provided by a reduced use of
suspect products may be significant, he said.
About source:
Health Education & Behavior, a peer-reviewed
journal of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), publishes
research on critical health issues for professionals in the
implementation and administration of public health information programs.
For information, contact Elaine Auld at (202) 408-9804.
Mitchell RE, Ash SL, McClelland JW. Nutrition
education among low-income older adults: a randomized intervention trial
in congregate nutrition sites. Health Education &Behavior 33(3):374-392,
2006
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