Abstract:

Background: Globally more than 800 million people are under nourished while more than 2 billion have one or more chronic Micronutrient deficiency (MND). More than 6% of global mortality and morbidity burdens are associated with undernourishment and MND. In Tanzania there are still problems associated with Micronutrient deficiency in different groups of age therefore there is no enough information on dietary supplementation in elderly.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Nyamagana district. Data obtained from 90 elders aged above 55 years collected through semi structured questionnaire-based interview. The data obtained was then entered into excel for cleaning and transferred into SPSS for analysis.

Results: Among 90 enrolled respondents (57 males and 33 females). About 45.6% of the respondents know about dietary supplements. Majority of respondents 76.7% have good knowledge towards the use of dietary supplements. In addition, majority 71.1% of the respondents have positive attitude towards the use of dietary supplements. In this study majority, 55.6% of the elders reported not to have used dietary supplements. The main reason was unaffordability of the dietary supplements.

Conclusion: Most of elderly people in this study had good knowledge and a positive attitude towards the use of dietary supplements. However, more than half of the elderly in Nyamagana district who participated in this study were not using dietary supplements. The main reason for not using dietary supplements was unaffordability.