(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Close to half of South Koreans consume multivitamins, probiotics and other supplements, the public health agency said Sunday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported that in the 2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 44.9 percent of respondents said they had consumed dietary supplements the day before taking the survey.
A KDCA research team studied the comprehensive data between 2018 and 2020, which showed that 37.5 percent of male and 45.7 percent of female respondents had consumed dietary supplements.
Most age groups showed a consumption rate of over 40 percent, except for younger, teenage groups including those between the ages of 12 and 18 (19.4 percent), those between 19 and 29 (25.9 percent) and those between 6 and 11 (32 percent).
The consumption rate of dietary supplements was exceptionally high among toddlers who were 1 or 2 years old (56.1 percent), followed by those between 50 and 64 (51 percent), 3 and 5 (48.3 percent), over 65 (46.5 percent) and between 30 and 49 (44.7 percent).
Among respondents who responded that they were located in the ‘lower’ income tier, the consumption rate of dietary supplements stood at 34.9 percent.
Among those who said they were located in the ‘upper’ income tier, the consumption rate was 48.4 percent.
The data also showed that 54.4 percent of respondents with a regular dose of dietary supplements consumed more than two types of supplements.
At 34.2 percent, more than one-third of those in their 50s and 60s consumed more than three kinds of dietary supplements.
Sorted by the type of dietary supplements, respondents consumed multivitamins the most (22.3 percent), followed by probiotics (14.5 percent), omega-3 fatty acids (12.2 percent), vitamin C (9 percent), calcium (9 percent) and vitamin A/lutein (4.8 percent).
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
