Abstract
BACKGROUND: Self-treatment of dietary supplements may contribute to interactions and severe side effects. Limited studies have constructed a scale that can measure the disclosure practice of supplements to healthcare providers and the influencing factors. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to investigate the supplement disclosure practice among the public in the UAE using a developed and validated supplement disclosure assessment scale tool. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey study that targeted those residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aged 18 years and above from both genders through an online survey. METHODS: A novel scale tool was developed and examined for its validity and reliability through three pilot studies. RESULTS: The study included three validity and reliability pilot studies before the main study evaluation: pilot 1 (n = 104), pilot 2 (n = 101), pilot 3 (n = 37), and study data (n = 407). A total of 407 respondents provided feedback from which 137 stated that they consumed supplements. A significant indirect effect of healthcare provider initiation of enquiry (HPE) on patient-informing practice (PI) was observed through two mediating variables, patient's beliefs (PB) and pharmacist counseling regarding supplements interactions (PC) (B = 0.106, t = 2.120, p = 0.03 and B = 0.077, t = 2.011, p = 0.04, respectively). Most respondents were not asked about their supplement consumption by the hospital and community pharmacists (52.94 and 50.74, respectively). Most respondents (54.89%) stated that pharmacists did not counsel them about any possible interaction of supplements with laboratory tests. The mean construct scores were 1.096 for PI, 2.618 for PC, 1.552 for HPE, and 1.412 for PB. CONCLUSION: The instrument demonstrates desirable validity and reliability. The study results revealed a direct effect of PB and PC on the supplement disclosure practice. HPE indirectly affected PI through two mediating variables: PB and PC. The results showed a moderate HPE and PC and an excellent PB and PI construct.