Use of Dietary Supplements among Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, Kenya: A Cross Sectional Analytical Study

Background: The dietary supplements market is growing at an alarming rate despite dietary source being acknowledged as the primary and priority source of nutrients. Kenya’s dietary supplements market has experienced a steady growth since 2009 owing to increasingly busy lifestyles, growing health consciousness and disposable income among the general population. Little has been documented about use of dietary supplements in Kenya despite their increase in popularity. The study sought to determine dietary supplements use among teachers in public secondary schools in kikuyu, Kiambu County, Kenya. Methodology: A cross-sectional analytical study design was administered on a simple randomly selected sample of 178 teachers. A researcher administered questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic and socio economic characteristics and dietary supplements use of the participants. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used to analyse data. Results: The mean age of the participants was 38 ±9.755. Majority were females (60.7%), married (65.7%) with 67.4 % having a university degree. Over half of the participants had an average monthly household income of Kshs >50,000.The prevalence of dietary supplements use among the teachers was 28.7%. The main type of supplement taken was Omega 3 and 6 (60.8%). There was significant relationship between demographic and socio economic characteristics of the participants and the use of dietary supplements (p<0.05) with the adjusted logistic regression identifying age, gender and income levels as the potential predictors of supplement use. Conclusion: Female teachers and those above 40 years were more likely to take supplements. About half of the teachers had an average household income of ≥ ksh50,000. Almost a third of the participants (28.7%) took dietary supplements with most of the supplements users taking omega 3 and 6 and calcium tablets on prescription or as a prophylactic measure. Due to the increased number of people (28.7% prevalence) using dietary supplements among the general population, there is need for a solid foundation of regulatory framework to forestall consumer exploitation and promote their safety as well as prevent abuse of the products by consumers.