Background. The data on vitamin D (VD) supplementation rationales and rates among undergraduates of medical universities is limited. We aimed to investigate the rate of students who declare VD supplementation, and factors that influence the decision on VD supplementation. Material and methods. A cross-sectional survey study among medical university students was performed from November 2018 through April 2019. The anonymous questionnaire contained questions about VD supplementation, persons from a student environment, who supplement or recommend VD intake, the most important personal rationale for initiation of or resignation from VD supplementation, the daily dose of VD, the period of supplementation, sex, BMI category, and age. In statistical analysis logistic regression analysis was performed. Results. A total of 595 completed surveys were collected. 303 (50.9%) of the respondents declared VD supplementation. The main personal rationales for VD intake were: knowledge acquired during the studies-153 (52.1%), knowledge gained beyond the studies-45 (14.9%), and medical specialist recommendation-34 (11.2%). The main reasons for resignation from VD supplementation were: lack of motivation-199 (68.2%), considering the supplementation as a waste of money-20 (6.8%), and personal belief in little significance of VD for health-14 (4.8%). VD supplementation was positively associated with studying in the medicine faculty (OR, 95% CI: 1.89, 1.33-2.68), family doctor's recommendation (1.82, 1.05-3.14), and medical specialist's recommendation (4.03, 2.15-7.54), and negatively related to friends' recommendations (0.58, 0.38-0.90). Conclusion. Half of the undergraduates declared VD supplementation. Studying in the medicine faculty and physician's recommendations were positively associated with VD intake. VD supplementation should be promoted among students.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract. The focus of this study is on regional knowledge production in Europe, with special emphasis on the interplay between intra-and inter-regional research collaboration. The objective is to identify and measure effects of research collaboration on knowledge production at the level of European regions. We use a panel data spatial Durbin model (SDM) relationship for empirical testing. The European coverage is achieved using 228 NUTS-2 regions covering all pre-2007 EU member states except Cyprus, Greece and Malta. The dependent variable, regional knowledge production, is measured in terms of fractional patent counts at the regional level in the time period [2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008], using patents applied at the European Patent Office (EPO). The independent variables include an agglomeration variable, reflecting intra-regional research collaboration, measured in terms of employment in knowledge intensive sectors, and a network variable, reflecting extra-regional research collaboration, measured in terms of a region´s collaboration activities in the EU Framework programmes (FPs), weighted by R&D expenditures in network partner regions. We implement a panel version of the standard SDM that controls for spatial autocorrelation as well as individual heterogeneity across regions, and allows for the estimation of spatial spillovers from neighbouring regions. The estimation results confirm the prevalence of agglomeration effects for regional knowledge production, and, by this, the importance of co-location of R&D actors. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that inter-regional R&D collaborations in the FPs significantly contribute to regional knowledge production. Up to now, there is only little empirical evidence on the local-global duality in knowledge creation at the regional level. In this study we take a regional perspective to address this question drawing on novel data sets providing information on project based networking activities in the The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 sheds some light on the theoretical background for the study, focusing on regional knowledge production and the importance of extra-regional research collaboration for gaining access to external knowledge sources. Section 3 outlines the econometric framework, specifying the empirical model in form of a panel version of the SDM relationship to be estimated. Section 4 comprises a detailed description of the empirical setting, presenting the ...