What Physicians Can Learn from Consumers of Dietary Supplements

Focus Group Results

Topic	Comments
Wellness	I just take whatever I can to be healthy or stay healthy. I had lots of allergies and migraine headaches. My traditional doctors gave me antibiotics frequently ... and codeine (for migraines). My holistic medical doctor changed my diet and gave me supplements ... I got much better. We definitely do not get what we need from food. I would go the natural route before I would ever go with a synthetic thing offered to me by a doctor. The whole picture is total health and taking care of yourself, eating right, exercising, getting enough rest, and keeping the stress down. I'm better off taking a supplement than what I would get from prescription drugs. They (physicians) should look at the natural options. Why would doctors tell you to take dietary supplements when they can write out a prescription for drugs and get a kickback from the drug companies? The only way they know how to heal is with a prescription. Without energy, without feeling good, I can't work, and I can't function, can't be a good wife, a good mother. I can't be any of those things, and that's the most important thing to me. Actually, at one point I was spending more money on that stuff than I was on food.
Experimentation	You read which ones (supplements) are good, and it's a matter of trying them. I know in medicine (doctors say) ... take this and we'll see what it does in a couple of days ... well, why not take the herbs and see what helps ... it's a matter of taking it. I felt more of a feeling of welt-being or more capable of handling everyday stress (if the supplement was effective). I'm just wondering if there could be a group or somebody who could find out the facts, what we can believe, where the truth is in all of this.
Physician - Patient Communication	They shouldn't be so quick to prescribe drugs and antibiotics. They should require for a medical degree that you take a course in nutrition. He (physician) said it doesn't make any difference ... what you put in your mouth or what you drink ... he was extremely rude. I respect a professional opinion, but you're still letting someone else do your thinking for you. I think doctors should be more into prevention. If family practitioners would be more trained ... in nutrition and ... preventive maintenance, your initial consult ... talk about ... basic diet ... how do you take care of yourself, how can we as a partnership make sure you don't come and see me often. Doctors have training and can diagnose what is wrong ... if that same doctor could go into alternative methods ... that would be heaven. If a family physician would know everything that is out there, then they could evaluate your situation and try to lead you to the best answer, which may not necessarily be a nutritional supplement. Medical schools (need to) do a better job of screening who is going to become a doctor ... we need more humanitarian (doctors) ... a lot of them are only interested in real estate and apartments and stuff like that.

Wellness

The focus group participants generally began taking dietary supplements because they felt motivated to be healthy or because they had been unsuccessful using conventional medicine to treat their chronic illnesses. The decision to use supplements as part of an effort to prevent illness was often stimulated by a growing awareness of the lifestyle practices that might contribute to overall health. The participants were often concerned about health problems associated with aging, either because of personal experience or because they had seen someone close to them suffer. Those in the focus group with chronic illnesses had the perception of enhanced wellness and improvement of their condition through the use of dietary supplements. Some participants with chronic illnesses continued their use of conventional medicines, and some did not.

Another motivation for using supplements stemmed from a concern about their diet, that the food supply could not adequately support their nutritional needs. In addition, many participants believed that using natural dietary supplements was safer than using pharmaceuticals. The use of supplements for almost all of the focus group participants, however, was not regarded as a "magic bullet," but as part of a strategy to maintain health that included proper diet, exercise, and stress management.

The participants were generally not concerned with the safety of the supplements they were taking. They believed they had great freedom in experimenting with supplements because they were natural, and thus not harmful, but most did acknowledge the need for moderation. Several participants recognized that some products, such as mega-doses of fat-soluble vitamins, could be dangerous. Many felt that not using supplements was more of a risk to their health than using them.

The participants generally perceived that physicians over-prescribe pharmaceuticals. Several study subjects expressed concerns about what they believe is an interdependent relationship between the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries, that excludes alternative medicine. Many of the participants believe that this situation is gradually changing, however.

Although some of the participants would buy the least expensive product, overall cost did not seem to be a concern for most of them. They felt that their health was worth the cost. At the extremes were one participant who said the cost of his supplementation approached a monthly car payment, and several younger students who said that they had to be cautious about the use of supplements because of their cost.


Experimentation

Customers generally determined the effectiveness of dietary supplements through a process of trial and error. First, the participants would read about the supplement and discuss it with others. After obtaining the basic information, they would take the supplement, and if they perceived it to be beneficial, they would continue to take it.

Common factors in the consumers' evaluation of a supplement included assessing how they felt when using it, what their energy level was, and how many times they were sick compared with other people during seasons of common illnesses like colds and influenza. They stressed being attuned to their bodies as a mechanism for evaluating supplements. This included such things as good sleep patterns, fewer colds, regular bowel movements, healthy nails, clear vision, mental acuity, and lack of body aches.

The participants expressed concerns about the large amount and poor quality of information about dietary supplements, and difficulty finding reliable data. They often consulted with the managers and workers in health food stores. The participants generally trusted information written by physicians, and a few said that they looked for medical studies. However, there was great concern about the reliability of and contradictions present in the current popular reading material about supplements. The participants also seemed to recognize a lack of quality control among the manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements, but they disagreed about the need for more government regulation. They did express a desire for more guidance in the decision-making process.

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