Use of Dietary Supplements among Spanish Pediatricians in Daily Practice: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Table 2

Characteristics of the use of three categories of dietary supplements.

Variables	Synbiotics (n = 1763)	Omega-3 (n = 854)	Immune stimulants (n = 1457)	value
Children’s age, years, mean (SD)	3.9 (3.9)	7.6 (3.0)	3.4 (2.8)	<0.001
Reasons for the recommendation
Gastrointestinal disorders	1223 (99.4)	0	8 (0.6)	<0.001
Combination with antibiotics	759 (93.7)	0	51 (6.3)	<0.001
Stimulation of defenses	22 (1.8)	2 (0.2)	1232 (98.1)	<0.001
Cold prevention	11 (1.2)	4 (0.4)	889 (98.3)	<0.001
Improvement of atopy symptoms	29 (21.2)	58 (42.3)	50 (36.5)	<0.001
Improvement of concentration	2 (0.3)	585 (99.0)	4 (0.7)	<0.001
Improvement of ADHD symptoms	4 (0.8)	467 (98.9)	1 (0.2)	<0.001
Duration of treatment
<1 month	1580 (90.5)	7 (0.8)	30 (2.1)	<0.001
1–3 months	126 (7.2)	170 (20.0)	875 (60.4)	<0.001
>3 months	39 (2.2)	671 (79.1)	544 (37.5)	<0.001
Clinical improvement (%)
Not at all	0.4	2.2	0.6	NS
Slight	3.4	24.8	7.1
Quite	40.5	54.7	58.5
A lot	55.7	18.3	33.8
Level of satisfaction (%)
Slightly satisfied	0.4	2.2	0.4	<0.001
Moderately satisfied	2.3	19.4	3.9	<0.001
Quite satisfied	34.7	48.2	42.6	<0.001
Very satisfied	62.7	30.2	53.0	<0.001