Table 3.
Nutritional supplements consumption behavior analysis.
| Variables | All Subjects n = 8752 |
Medical Students n = 4252 (48.6) |
Non-Medical Students n = 4500 (51.4) |
p-Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Have you taken any nutritional supplements? | ||||
| Yes | 5098 (58.9) | 2606 (61.5) | 2492 (56.4) | <0.001 |
| No | 3555 (41.1) | 1630 (38.5) | 1925 (43.6) | |
| For how long have you taken nutritional supplements? | ||||
| Less than 1 year | 3163 (63.4) | 1655 (63.8) | 1508 (63.1) | 0.931 |
| 1–2 years | 1118 (22.4) | 581 (22.4) | 537 (22.5) | |
| 3–5 years | 496 (9.9) | 257 (9.9) | 239 (10.0) | |
| More than 5 years | 209 (4.2) | 103 (3.9) | 106 (4.4) | |
| Duration of consumption over the past year: | ||||
| None | 2072 (41.9) | 1065 (41.3) | 1007 (42.5) | 0.204 |
| ≤2 months | 1891 (38.2) | 1029 (39.9) | 862 (36.4) | |
| 3–5 months | 646 (13.0) | 301 (11.7) | 345 (14.6) | |
| ≥6 months | 200 (4.0) | 93 (3.6) | 107 (4.5) | |
| A whole year | 142 (2.9) | 93 (3.6) | 49 (2.1) | |
| What kind of nutritional supplements do you take? | ||||
| Single | 2200 (45.2) | 1130 (44.4) | 1070 (46.2) | 0.204 |
| Various | 2664 (54.8) | 1417 (55.6) | 1247 (53.8) | |
| How is the effectiveness of your nutritional supplements? | ||||
| Full | 370 (7.7) | 222 (8.8) | 148 (6.4) | <0.001 |
| Fair | 2086 (43.3) | 1132 (44.9) | 954 (41.5) | |
| Neutral | 891 (18.5) | 416 (16.5) | 475 (20.7) | |
| Not sure | 723 (30.6) | 750 (29.8) | 723 (31.4) | |
| What is the main effectiveness of nutritional supplements do you think? | ||||
| To improve immunity | 861 (25.2) | 419 (23.8) | 442 (26.6) | 0.034 |
| To improve body function | 1683 (49.2) | 883 (50.2) | 800 (48.1) | |
| To treat diseases | 322 (9.4) | 184 (10.5) | 138 (8.3) | |
| Other | 555 (16.2) | 273 (15.5) | 282 (17.0) | |
mean ± standard deviation; frequency (percentage). Chi-squared test.