Knowledge and opinion of patients submitted to nutrition and dietetic outpatient services on the use of herbal products and food supplements.

The face-to-face survey which includes 22 questions has been conducted with 200 participants whom they were outpatients of a private hospital's Nutrition and Dietetics Clinic, in order to determine today's user perspective and experience about the herbal products and food supplements that have been used for protective and curative purposes since the ancient times. The SPSS 23.0 program has been used while analyzing the statistical data. 62% of the participants stated that they have used herbal products and 89.5% of them have used food supplements. 45% of the participants stated that they have limited knowledge on the herbal products and 44% of the participants made the same statement regarding the food supplements. However, 64.3% of respondents whom has knowledge of herbal products found these products absolutely beneficial, while 46.7% of those with limited knowledge and 39% of those whom were undecided found them beneficial. 43.5% of the participants whom has knowledge on food supplement products, 54.5% of those with limited knowledge and 47% of those who are undecided found food supplements beneficial. With %54, the most used herbal product has been found as black seed oil or capsules. While there is no significant correlation between the preferences of herbal products and gender (p=0.08, p>0.05), There is a significant correlation between age and herbal product preferences (P=0.049, p<0.05). Among the participants, vitamin D is the most used vitamin and the iron is the most used mineral. Any significant correlation couldn't be found between age and vitamin usage (p=0.311, p>0.05). Age and mineral usage also does not contain any correlation (p=0.072, p>0.05). While society is the primary source of recommendation for herbal products, health professionals are the primary source for food supplements. With 48.4%, spice stores ranked first while the pharmacies were in the second place with 31.5% for purchasing herbal products. 87.5% of respondents prefer to purchase the food supplements from pharmacies, 2.1% of respondents prefer the spice stores.