Japanese newspaper advertisements for dietary supplements before and after COVID-19: a content analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Public health institutions have alerted consumers about advertising for dietary supplements with false claims of preventing or treating COVID-19. We quantitatively and qualitatively examined newspaper advertisements for dietary supplements before and after the COVID-19 spread.

Design

Content analysis.

Participants

We analysed advertisements for dietary supplements in two major Japanese newspapers in February-July 2019 and February-July 2020. Our analysis covered 2167 advertisements.

Results

The number of advertisements for dietary supplements that claimed to be effective in infection prevention (p=0.009) and improving joint (p=0.002) and digestive functions (p=0.002) significantly increased after the spread of COVID-19 compared with before. Dietary s

SUBMITTER: Okuhara T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8611233 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature