Consumption of dietary health supplements among hospitalized patients at an acute tertiary Hospital

•Up to 42% patients surveyed were dietary health supplements (DHS) users.•DHS users tend to have healthier lifestyle behaviours than non-users.•More than half of the users did not inform healthcare professionals about DHS use.•The inquiring about DHS use by healthcare professionals was poor.

Dietary health supplements (DHS)-drug interaction risk may be greater in patients requiring numerous medications; yet little is known about DHS use in hospitalized patients. This study aims to characterize patients who use DHS, to evaluate the association between DHS use and socio-demographic, lifestyle and dietary habits; and to investigate whether users report DHS use to healthcare professionals (HCPs). Patients admitted to the medical wards, with age ≥21 years, medically stable, cognitively intact and conversant in English, Mandarin or Malay language were interviewed by a dietitian. Of the 100 patients surveyed, up to 42% were DHS users. They tend to be non-smokers (98%) (p = 0.02) with higher daily fruit intake of at least two servings (31%) (p = 0.02), daily milk intake of at least one cup (21%) (p = 0.03) and whole grain bread intake of at least once a day (31%) (p < 0.05) when compared with non-users. DHS were mostly used for general well being, disease prevention and treatment. However, more than half of the users did not inform HCPs about DHS use as they were not asked by HCPs. Our findings have important implication by raising concern for DHS–drug interaction given the low disclosure rate of DHS use and poor inquiring by HCPs.

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