Restani Patrizia, Di Lorenzo Chiara, Garcia-Alvarez Alicia, Frigerio Gianfranco, Colombo Francesca, Maggi Franco M, Milà-Villarroel Raimon, Serra-Majem Lluis
Dept. of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy.
Fundación para la Investigacion Nutricional, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
PLoS One. 2018 Jan 11;13(1):e0190915. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190915. eCollection 2018.
Food supplements, and in particular those containing botanicals (plant food supplements, PFS), have in recent decades been of great interest both to consumers and to food/pharmaceutical industries.
The aim of this paper is to examine replies by Italian consumers to the PlantLIBRA consumers' survey in order to: 1) assess the behaviour of an Italian population with respect to the use of PFS, and to compare it with that of other 5 countries involved in the whole survey; 2) identify different habits in the 4 Italian cities selected according to their geographical distribution; 3) collect independent information on the actual intake of PFS and consumers' behaviour.
SUBJECTS/SETTING: 397 Italian consumers enrolled, 187 males (49.5%) and 191 female (50.5%). The distribution of subjects among the 4 cities included was: Milan 99; Venice 90; Rome 96 and Catania 96.
The interest in PFS in Italy is high, the prevalence of "regular" consumers being 22.7%. Some differences were observed between the 4 cities involved: the pattern of use during the year was specific to each city; consumers in Milan reported reasons to use PFS significantly different from those in the whole Italian sample and did not indicate supermarkets as an important place of purchase; respondents from Rome and Catania more frequently used family doctors and pharmacists as a source of recommendation. Some significant difference among cities, sex and age groups were observed when the most frequently used botanicals were ranked.
The results provide new insights on the socio-economic characteristics and lifestyle of Italian PFS consumers, on their reasons for and pattern of use, and on their behaviour and expectations. The value of this information is not restricted to the specific country (Italy) but allows for a more general evaluation of the pattern of use, according to habits and geographical area.
近几十年来，食品补充剂，尤其是那些含有植物成分的（植物性食品补充剂，PFS），受到了消费者以及食品/制药行业的极大关注。
本文旨在研究意大利消费者对PlantLIBRA消费者调查的回复，以便：1）评估意大利人群使用PFS的行为，并将其与参与整个调查的其他5个国家的人群进行比较；2）确定根据地理分布选定的4个意大利城市中的不同习惯；3）收集有关PFS实际摄入量和消费者行为的独立信息。
对象/地点：招募了397名意大利消费者，其中187名男性（49.5%）和191名女性（50.5%）。纳入的4个城市的受试者分布情况为：米兰99人；威尼斯90人；罗马96人；卡塔尼亚96人。
意大利对PFS的兴趣很高，“经常”消费者的患病率为22.7%。在所涉及的4个城市之间观察到了一些差异：每个城市一年中的使用模式各不相同；米兰的消费者报告的使用PFS的原因与整个意大利样本有显著差异，并且没有将超市列为重要的购买场所；罗马和卡塔尼亚的受访者更频繁地将家庭医生和药剂师作为推荐来源。在对最常用的植物成分进行排名时，观察到城市、性别和年龄组之间存在一些显著差异。
研究结果为意大利PFS消费者的社会经济特征和生活方式、他们的使用原因和模式以及他们的行为和期望提供了新的见解。这些信息的价值不仅限于特定国家（意大利），还能根据习惯和地理区域对使用模式进行更全面的评估。
