Do adolescent vitamin-mineral supplement users have better nutrient intakes than nonusers? Observations from the CATCH tracking study

Objective Describe whether users of vitamin-mineral supplements differed fr om nonusers in micronutrient intakes or in nutrition awareness. Design Cross-sectional, observational study. Subjects One thousand five hun dred thirty-two students now in grade 8, who participated in the Third Chil d and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health tracking study and who als o provided a single 24-hour dietary recall. Statistical analyses performed Mixed-model analysis of covariance was used to ascertain if supplement users had higher vitamin and mineral intakes fro m food sources, and to examine if supplement users had better nutrition awa reness than nonusers. Results The 24-hour recall showed that 17.6% of the students reported using vitamin-mineral supplements. Users reported a mean of 1.4 supplements, of which 47% were multivitamin or multimineral preparations, 37% were single n utrients, and 16% were combinations. White persons and residents of Minneso ta and California were more likely to be supplement users. Users had higher micronutrient intakes from food sources for 16 of the 20 nutrients studied after adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, site, treatment condition, and within-school variability. Users had higher scores on a health behavior su rvey for food choice and slightly but not significantly higher nutrition kn owledge scores. Conclusions Vitamin-mineral supplement use is prevalent among eighth-grade students. Users have higher nutrient intakes from foods, higher total intak es for several micronutrients, higher nutrition awareness, and differ in th eir demographic characteristics from nonusers.