Vitamin and mineral supplement users. Do they have healthy or unhealthy dietary behaviours?

It is unknown whether people use vitamin and mineral supplements (VMS) to compensate for unhealthy diets, or people whom already have a healthy diet use VMS. Therefore, this study aimed to examine correlates of VMS use and whether VMS users can be categorised into specific clusters based on dietary lifestyle variables. The data used came from the Swiss Food Panel questionnaire for 2010. The sample consisted of 6189 respondents, mean age was 54 years and 47.6% were males. Data was analysed with logistic regression analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The results revealed that for VMS use, gender, age, education, chronic illness, health consciousness, benefits of fortification, convenience food and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption were of importance. Cluster analysis revealed three clusters (1) healthy diet, (2) unhealthy diet and (3) modest diet. Compared to non-users a higher percentage of VMS users was categorised in the healthy cluster and a lower percentage in the unhealthy cluster. More VMS-users were categorised as having an unhealthy diet (31.4%) than having a healthy diet (20.6%). The results suggest that both hypotheses-VMS are used by people with unhealthy diets and by people who least need them-hold true meaning.

► Vitamin and mineral supplement (VMS) users are more likely to have a healthy dietary lifestyle compared to non-VMS users.
► A higher percentage of VMS users have an unhealthy dietary pattern than a healthy dietary pattern.
► Both hypotheses-VMS are used by people with unhealthy diets and by people who least need them-seems to hold true meaning.