Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Nutritional supplements are products intended to increase the total dietary intake and contain vitamins, minerals, herbs, or amino acids. The nutritional supplement market in South Africa is largely unregulated which raises concern about efficacy and safety. Nutritional supplements are advertised widely, especially in the printed media, and often these advertisements contain a variety of claims.
Objectives: To describe the claims made in advertisements of nutritional supplements in South African women’s magazines, and to compare it with the evidence cited within the advertisements.
Methods: The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa was contacted to identify the five registered women’s magazines with the highest circulation figures. From September 2010 to August 2011 these magazines (60issues in total) are being collected. One author screens each issue to identify all advertisements of nutritional supplements for inclusion, and extracts pre-specified data. The primary outcomes are to describe the information that is presented in advertisements (e.g. health claims, anecdotes), to determine the proportion of advertisements that cite research to support their claims, and to determine whether the advertisements that provide citations to support their claims used the cited research within context. This abstract reports the preliminary analysis.
Results: The identified women’s magazines are Cosmopolitan, Finesse, Move!, Rooi Rose and Sarie. The first 10 issues contained 22 eligible advertisements; 20 of which included health claims. Ten of these cited research, but none of it is appropriate (e.g. in terms of study design, types of participants, intervention). In one advertisement of a calcium-magnesium supplement, a good quality meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials is cited. Ironically, the study authors concluded that calcium supplementation is associated with about a 30% increase in the incidence of myocardial infarction.
Conclusions: Preliminary findings show that manufacturers of South African nutritional supplements claim benefits that are not supported by appropriate evidence.
Objectives: To describe the claims made in advertisements of nutritional supplements in South African women’s magazines, and to compare it with the evidence cited within the advertisements.
Methods: The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa was contacted to identify the five registered women’s magazines with the highest circulation figures. From September 2010 to August 2011 these magazines (60issues in total) are being collected. One author screens each issue to identify all advertisements of nutritional supplements for inclusion, and extracts pre-specified data. The primary outcomes are to describe the information that is presented in advertisements (e.g. health claims, anecdotes), to determine the proportion of advertisements that cite research to support their claims, and to determine whether the advertisements that provide citations to support their claims used the cited research within context. This abstract reports the preliminary analysis.
Results: The identified women’s magazines are Cosmopolitan, Finesse, Move!, Rooi Rose and Sarie. The first 10 issues contained 22 eligible advertisements; 20 of which included health claims. Ten of these cited research, but none of it is appropriate (e.g. in terms of study design, types of participants, intervention). In one advertisement of a calcium-magnesium supplement, a good quality meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials is cited. Ironically, the study authors concluded that calcium supplementation is associated with about a 30% increase in the incidence of myocardial infarction.
Conclusions: Preliminary findings show that manufacturers of South African nutritional supplements claim benefits that are not supported by appropriate evidence.