Dietary supplementation use for outpatient treatment in children: A cross-sectional study

Objective: Dietary supplements (DSs) are commonly used supplements among children to support disease treatment, however, overuse and inappropriate prescription of outpatient DS can negatively affect health and treatment costs. This study aimed to evaluate DS use in outpatient treatment in children.

Methods: The present study used a cross-sectional descriptive retrospective method based on data from 188,579 outpatient prescriptions of children for 1 year.

Results: DSs were commonly prescribed in pediatric patients ≤5 years old (63.48 %) with diagnosing respiratory, infectious, and gastrointestinal diseases (>50 %). DS costs account for a high proportion (24.86 %) of total outpatient prescription costs. In addition, pediatric prescriptions containing one DS product (88.16 %) showed a higher rate than prescriptions containing two DS products (11.84 %) with the main ingredients being vitamin D₃ (80.55 %), vitamin B₆ (63.01 %), vitamin B₁ (60.22 %), and vitamin B₂ (59.04 %), and calcium (51.0 %). The majority of DS products contained multivitamins (69.52 %) with DS containing ≥5 vitamins of 59.04 % and DS containing 2-4 vitamins of 10.48 %. Besides, non-compliance with DS prescribing guidelines for age (21.38 %), dose (14.13 %), and both age and dose (5.54 %) was found primarily in highly prescribed DSs (vitamin-amino acid-mineral ingredients), pediatric patients <2 years old, prescriptions containing one DS product or multivitamins, and respiratory disease group (J and R04-09 ICD). The univariate and multivariate regression analyses showed that vitamin-mineral products and groups <2 years old were significantly associated with guideline-adherent DS prescribing for age and/or dose. Meanwhile, foreign DSs and vitamin-mineral ingredients of prescription showed significant associations with guideline-adherent DS prescribing for age or dose.

Conclusion: Instructions for DS use regarding recommended age and maximum dosage may not be carefully considered by doctors due to belonging to an over-the-counter medicine group. Therefore, there is a strong need for a national public policy to prevent and control overprescribing and inappropriate prescribing of DS.