Dietary supplement use immediately before and during pregnancy in Norwegian women with eating disorders

Objective: Many pregnant women use dietary supplements. Little is known about dietary supplement use during pregnancy in women with eating disorders. Method: We examined dietary supplement use in 37,307 pregnant women, from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Results: Dietary supplement use during pregnancy was as follows: 91.2% of women with anorexia nervosa, 92.2% of women with bulimia nervosa, 93.2% of women with eating disorder not otherwise specified‐purging subtype (EDNOS‐P), 90.6% of women with binge eating disorder, and 93.5% of the women without eating disorders. Between group differences were not statistically significant. After adjusting for covariates, women with EDNOS‐P were more likely to take iron containing supplements ( p ≤ .04). Discussion: Overall dietary supplement use in this sample is similar in women with and without eating disorders. © 2010 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2011; 44:325–332)