Table 4. Reasons of use, overall and by city^a,b,c.

	Europe		Italy		Milan		Venice		Rome		Catania
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Stomach/Digestive function	386	13.4	80	19.2	24	20.7	20	19.8	17	17.3	19	18.6
Energy/Tonics	480	16.7	61	14.6	19	16.4	10	9.9	15	15.3	17	16.7
Relaxing	266	9.3	48	11.5	9	7.8	9	8.9	13	13.3	17	16.7
Immune system	578	20.1	38	9.1	17	14.7	7	6.9	5	5.1	9	8.8
Body weight	253	8.8	34	8.2	10	8.6	14	13.9	5	5.1	5	4.9
Sleeping	196	6.8	33	7.9	10	8.6	4	4.0	8	8.2	11	10.8
Hair/skin	309	10.8	32	7.7	15	12.9	7	6.9	4	4.1	6	5.9
Hearth/blood circulation	223	7.8	27	6.5	12	10.3	7	6.9	6	6.1	2	2.0
Joint and bones	258	9.0	26	6.2	8	6.9	2	2.0	12	12.2	4	3.9
Flu/cold	310	10.8	24	5.8	6	5.2	7	6.9	4	4.1	7	6.9
Mood	206	7.2	24	5.8	7	6.0	8	7.9	4	4.1	5	4.9
Antioxidant intake	189	6.6	18	4.3	11	9.5	2	2.0	4	4.1	1	1.0
Memory	236	8.2	17	4.1	5	4.3	5	5.0	4	4.1	3	2.9
Cholesterol	164	5.7	16	3.8	3	2.6	3	3.0	4	4.1	6	5.9
Urinary tract	137	4.8	14	3.4	5	4.3	4	4.0	1	1.0	4	3.9
Vision or hearing	67	2.3	6	1.4	2	1.7	0	0.0	3	3.1	1	1.0
Menopause	168	5.8	5	1.2	4	3.4	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	1.0
General health	84	2.9	1	0.2	2	1.7	3	3.0	5	5.1	3	2.9
Other	265	9.2	45	10.8	11	9.5	10	9.9	16	16.3	8	7.8
Uncertain	9	0.3	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Total PFS used	n = 2874		n = 417		n = 116		n = 101		n = 98		n = 102
Total counts of reasons	n = 4784		n = 549		n = 180		n = 122		n = 130		n = 129
Total counts/Total PFS	1.7		1.3		1.6		1.2		1.3		1.3

^agrey cells indicate the three most reported reasons of use

^bthe consumer could indicate for each PFS several reasons of use; percentage are referred to the total PFS used

^creasons of use are listed according to the decreasing order of reply coming from the Italian respondents