According to data collected from the third Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) tracking study, American school children in the eighth grade who take vitamin/mineral supplements are generally healthier and more knowledgeable about nutrition than their peers who do not use supplements.
Researchers at the New England Medical Centre and Schools of Medicine and Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston reported in the November 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (101,11: 1340-46, 2001) that eighth grade supplement users have a higher intake of micronutrients from food sources and also have more knowledge of nutrition than peers who do not use supplements. Researchers also noted that white students and those in Minnesota and California were the most likely supplement users.
CATCH was initiated among 96 elementary schools in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas from 1991 to 1994 to determine whether physical education, health education and school nutrition programs could have a positive effect on student health. Originally, 5,106 students were involved in the CATCH main trial, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and they were followed from third through fifth grade. The CATCH Tracking Study, funded by NHLBI, was a follow-up that followed students through middle school grades six to eight. Of the 1,532 eighth graders who provided a single 24-hour dietary recall for the third CATCH tracking study, 17.6 per cent of the students reported using supplements. Of these, 47 per cent were multivitamin or multimineral preparations, 37 per cent were single nutrients and 16 per cent were combinations. In addition, supplement users reported higher micronutrient intakes from food sources for 16 of the 20 nutrients studied. Supplement users also scored higher on a health behaviour survey for food choice and demonstrated slightly higher nutrition knowledge.
Researchers concluded that vitamin/mineral supplement users among this age group tend to have higher nutrient intakes from foods than nonusers and have higher total micronutrient intake, as well as demonstrate more nutrition awareness and differ in demographic characteristics from nonusers.