Assessment of the use and adverse effects of dietary supplements among medical students at a university during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Objective: According to our general observation, during the COVID pandemic, every segment of the society resorted to dietary supplements in order to prevent the disease. In our study, we aimed to demonstrate that the students' intake of dietary supplements escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, blind use of these products was common and side effects might be observed. Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted with students who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study between 01.11.2022 and 01.03.2023 at Başkent University, Faculty of Medicine. A 25-question questionnaire, which we designed with the help of similar studies in the literature, was carried out face-to-face with 319 students. Results: 68% of the participants were female and 32% were male. It was determined that 58.3% of the participants used a kind of dietary supplement. The onset of the use of dietary supplements were significantly higher during the pandemic than before the pandemic. The use of multivitamins, multiminerals and immunomodulators by women compared to men was significantly different (p<0,05). There was no significant relation between the dietary supplements that the participants took and the side effects they thought were related to the intake of these supplements (p>0,05). 58,9% of the participants stated that they obtained information about dietary supplements from physicians. Conclusion: 58,3% of the participants used dietary supplements and the most commonly used supplements were single nutritional supplements, multivitamins and multiminerals. Women were more likely to use dietary supplements than men. Multivitamin, multimineral and immunomodulator use was also higher in women. 16,1% of those who used dietary supplements describe the symptoms they experienced as a side effect of the supplements. We know that the doses used in supplements vary greatly. For this reason, dose-dependent complications and side-effect profile of these nutritional supplements should be evaluated in a separate study. Keywords: coronavirus, dietary supplements, adverse effects, medical students