Supplement education survey launched

NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements wants to determine the quantity and quality of instruction offered to graduate and health-professional students on dietary supplements and the products' roles in health and disease. ODS is conducting a survey this month through December around the U.S. in departments or schools of nutrition, food science, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacology and pharmacy, kinesiology and exercise science, and complementary and alternative medicine. The office says results from the survey will mark a starting point to expand and improve instruction on dietary supplements. The initiative should also increase the number of dietary supplement researchers. Instructors participating in the survey will be asked to describe teaching methods they use for dietary supplements and to provide materials describing their programs' contents. Other questions will identify resources of value for teaching activities about supplements and factors working against providing instruction on this topic...