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영어

Background: The use of health functional food (HFF) is increasing and will continue to rise worldwide. Concerns about HFF-drug interactions are increasing as HFF are becoming more widely used. Therefore,awareness of consumers’ perceptions and behaviors associated with HFF use may help health care providersimprove their communications with patients. Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics,perceptions, and behaviors associated with HFF use in South Korea. Method: The online surveywas conducted from September 21th to October 7th, 2013. With the aid of Social Network Service (SNS)and google, the questionnaire was posted online on internet website targeting people aged 15 years or olderso that self-reported data covering 4 domains were collected from 257 Koreans. Results: A total of 257people responded the questionnaire. Among them, 81.3% reported experiences of HFF use. Female weremore likely than male to use HFFs. There were no differences in demographic characteristics between HFFusers and non-users in relation to age, education, and household income. Higher level of education wasassociated with high-level perception of HFF function (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.48, 10.1) and a positive relationshipwas observed between the maximum number of HFFs used concurrently and age of the respondents. Amongthe HFF users, 42.6% reported concurrent HFF-medication use. However 73.3% of them did not disclosetheir use to physician or pharmacist and only 30.2% were informed about potential drug-HFF interactions. Pharmacy was most commonly reported as the source from which the respondents were informed aboutpotential interactions. Conclusion: Many people had used HFF and medications concurrently while not beinginformed about potential HFF-drug interactions. Pharmacists and physicians should be vigilant for risk ofthe interactions and actively determine whether the patient is using an HFF before prescribing and administratingmedications.