Association between intake of health foods/supplements and long-term care in the general elder population: the Yamagata cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Background: In recent years, the number of people who consume health foods and supplements has increased owing to growing health consciousness. However, the association between health foods/supplements intake and long-term care in the general elder Japanese remains unclear. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we surveyed the intake of health foods/supplements among 8,718 community health checkup participants aged 65 years and over (49.7% men; mean age, 69.3 years) and examined the association between the intake of health foods/supplements and incidence of long-term care during a 9-year follow-up period. Results: Health foods/supplements intake was observed in 2,092 subjects (24.0%). Compared to the non-intake group, the health foods/supplements intake group showed a higher prevalence of women; a lower prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, and its medication. The most frequent health foods/supplements were vitamins, plants, and chondroitin-glucosamine/collagen. During follow-up period the incident long-term care occurred in 291 subjects (3.3%). In competing risk analysis, adjusted for confounding factors, the intake of 3 or more types of health foods/supplements was significantly associated with incidence of long-term care. The association between specific type of health foods/supplements and incidence of long-term care was not observed. Conclusions: This study reports a high prevalence of health foods/supplements intake and the association between the intake of multiple health foods/supplements and the incidence of long-term care in the general elder population in Japan. This finding indicates that the caution is required in taking many health foods/supplements without adequate information.