Use of food supplements and determinants of usage in a sample Italian adult population.

Objective: The aims were to collect data on consumption of different food supplements in a sample of the adult Italian population and to characterize users by demographic, physical and health-related characteristics, lifestyle and behaviour.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: The study was conducted in 2008 in ten towns of Italy (two towns from each of the five macro-areas: Northwest, Northeast, Centre, South and Islands).

Reliability of a self-administered postal questionnaire on the use of food supplements in an italian adult population.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of a self-administered postal questionnaire on the use of food supplements. The study was carried out in subjects representative of an Italian adult population. Eight thousand eight hundred twenty-three subjects received the questionnaire; 1723 subjects completed it of which 102 twice (baseline and 1-month re-administration).

Convenient TLC for the detection of a herbal ingredient in a food supplement.

This study describes a practical and suitable approach to solve a real problem: the analysis of polyherbal products for which some specifications addressing the composition are lacking (e.g. chemical components).