Development of an online tool to assist in decisionson the consumption of dietary supplements

Abstract

The increasing consumption of dietary supplements raises the public concern on their efficacy and safety. There has been reports of serious health problems from taking the dietary supplements. Therefore, the development of a decision-making tool may help consumers to choose dietary supplements appropriately. This study aimed to identify variables that influence the safe decision of consumers in dietary supplements consumption and to develop a decision support online tool for consumers. The methodology consisted of three phases. Phase I, the situations and factors affecting the safe selection of dietary supplements were investigated. Nine consumers, two state authorities, and two entrepreneurs were in-depth interviewed for their experiences on dietary supplement consumption and problems. In addition, variables of dietary supplements available online in e-marketplaces and the examination report from MoPH were analyzed to summarize factors affecting the safe selection. Phase II, an online tool to support consumers’ decision was developed. Four consumers, one state authority, and one technology expert provided advice to the tool development. Phase III, an online tool was tested and evaluated with 30 consumers. The results were found that stakeholders had different perspectives on the problems because they perceived the risks with different recognition methods and they managed them with different approaches. Empowering consumers was the appropriate solution for the existing situation. Factors related to consumer decision making were the accuracy of manufacturer information, showing expiration date, showing lot number, showing extra caution, showing distributor information, the accuracy of component format, and showing 3 typical cautions. The decision tree with 92.31% accuracy of the safety prediction was created and used as the processing structure for a decision support tool. The tool named Check4Safety was created using the web application technology. Finally, the Check4Safety was assessed by users using the THARS assessment, which had an average score of 28.27 (74.39%). Consequently, the Check4Safety is an online tool that can be used to support the decision making of consumers in dietary supplement consumption safely.

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