Associations Between Health Status, Training Level, Motivations for Exercise, and Supplement Use Among Recreational Runners

Dietary supplement use continues to increase, with athlete use surpassing non-athlete utilization. Most research has been conducted on dietary supplement use in elite or collegiate-level athletes. This study investigated supplement use in adult recreational runners and determined relationships between supplement use and participants’ training volume, motivations for exercise, self-reported health status, and reasons for using dietary supplements. Participants (n = 283) were recruited for this cross-sectional study via a convenience sampling method. Participants completed an electronic questionnaire using Likert-scale response options. Correlations between the aggregate variables of health status, training level, exercise motivation, reasons for using supplements, and supplement use were calculated using bivariate Pearson correlation analysis. There was a positive correlation between the variables exercise motivation and supplement use (r = 0.267, n = 276, p = 0.01), and between variables influencing reasons for using dietary supplements and reported supplement use was also found (r = 0.425, n = 276, p = 0.01). There was no correlation between health status and supplement use (r = 0.043, n = 275, p = 0.476), or between training level and supplement use (r = 0.00, n = 275, p = 0.994). This study demonstrated a positive correlation between runners’ supplement use and motivations for exercising and reasons for consuming supplements. A significant relationship was not found between supplement use and participants’ health status or supplement use and runners’ training volume. This finding contrasts with previous research in supplement use in the athlete population, which largely reports increased dietary supplement use with increased training volume.