The prevalence of dietary supplement use among Malaysian adults at Pharmacy Department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian, Kelantan

Influx of various dietary supplement products nowadays in the market has resulted a big impact on it usage trend. People, especially adults are using various dietary supplement to improve their quality of health. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of dietary supplement use among Malaysian adult in pharmacy department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, type of supplement that they choose to use, source of information about the supplement and what influenced them to start using supplement. One set of a self-administered questionnaire was prepared to aid data collection as the pharmacy department staffs and visitors were asked to fill the questionnaire. Out of 125 respondents, 68 of them use various dietary supplement (54.4%). Most of them use supplement in order to improve their internal health. Vitamin and mineral supplement (VMS) is the most popular supplement and been used among Malaysian adults in HUSM pharmacy department (61.8%). Other than that, majority of the users started taking supplement after being recommended by their family members and friends (57.3%). However, advertisement on internet and social media (70.6%) is the most common source of information where public used to get information about supplements. As conclusion, Malaysian adults are free to decide whether to take any dietary supplements or not, as supplements are just another alternative to help improve our health.