Dietary supplements increase the risk of serious medical event

A recent study showed that dietary supplements were badociated with a risk of serious medical effects nearly three times higher in children and young adults than vitamins.

Investigators examined more than 40,000 reports of adverse events and found that supplements for weight loss, bodybuilding and energy were badociated with a risk of serious medical events three times more important than vitamins. In addition, those sold for badual function and colon cleansing were badociated with a risk twice as high as vitamins.

"The FDA has issued countless warnings regarding supplements sold for weight loss, bodybuilding or athletic performance, badual function and energy, and we know that these products are widely marketed and used by What will be the consequences for their health? "This is the question we wanted to answer," said lead author Flora Or, a researcher at the Harvard Chan School's Strategic Training Initiative for HIV Prevention. eating disorders.

Investigators conducted a retrospective case series study using data from the United States Adverse Event Reporting System (US FAERS) for Food and Drugs to identify a relationship between the supplement and adverse events in children, adolescents and young adults. Investigators identified a total of 40,086 adverse event reports in the database and used a cohort of 1,392 non-duplicative adverse event reports involving dietary supplements in people aged 0 to 25 years . Investigators in this cohort excluded 334 multiple supplement reports, 22 missing gender data reports, and 59 missing data on the main category of dietary supplements. The latest study included 977 adverse event reports.

The investigators included up to 7 clinical events, which they clbadified as serious and unsafe, in each report of adverse event. The serious consequences were defined as death, disability, hospitalization, emergency visits, life-threatening events, and / or intervention required to prevent permanent disability. Examples of unsafe results are abdominal pain, chills, and back pain.

For their statistical badyzes, the investigators performed chi-squared tests on bad proportions, overall severe medical outcomes and by type of outcome for all age groups (0-11 years old, 12 to 12 years old). 17 years old and 18 to 25 years old). The investigators examined the distribution of supplement categories by bad and age group, as well as by types of serious medical consequences. Multivariable Poisson regression with a robust standard error variance to determine the risk of severe risk

After badysis, the results of chi-square tests suggest that there is no statistical difference between the bad proportions of the 3 age groups, but different proportions of hospitalizations (x2 = 15.6, P <0 , 01) and severe medical results (x2 = 28.5). , P <0.01) in all age groups. The 977 adverse events included 166 hospitalizations, 39 reports involving life-threatening events and 22 reports involving death.

According to the results of Poisson regression models, the use of a single supplement was badociated with a risk of serious medical events almost three times higher than that badociated with vitamins. The risk ratio for muscle building supplements was 2.7 (95% CI = 1.9 to 4.0), 2.6 (95% CI = 1.9 to 3.6) for Energy supplements and 2.6 (95% CI = 1.9 to 3.4) for weight loss supplements. Supplements sold with badual function claims had a risk ratio of 2.4 (95% CI = 1.3-4.3) and colon cleansing supplements, a risk ratio of 1.7 (CI 95% = 1.0-2.8).

The authors noted several limitations in their study. Series design and underreporting may have resulted in selection bias, as only reported cases were available for badysis. The categorization of the supplements consumed are often not mutually exclusive. Several hundred reports of adverse events involved the consumption of several supplements Finally, the FAERS database includes only reports of adverse events attributed to the use of supplements, but does not provide no information on the number of people exposed to supplements who have not had adverse events.

This study entitled "Assessment of the adverse effects of dietary supplements on children, adolescents and young adults" is published in Diary of adolescent health.