Dietary Supplement Use Common in the United States

TUESDAY, April 18, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Dietary supplement (DS) use is common in the United States, according to a study published online April 18 in the National Health Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Suruchi Mishra, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues present prevalence estimates for DS use using data from the 2017 to March 2020 prepandemic National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 years and adults aged 20 years and older (6,324 and 9,924 individuals, respectively).

The researchers found that 34.8 percent of children and adolescents and 58.5 percent of adults used at least one DS in the past 30 days during 2017 to March 2020. Except for children aged 12 to 24 months, use was higher among females than males. Among adults, DS use increased with income and education. Higher DS use was reported among non-Hispanic Asian and non-Hispanic White adults than Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black adults. Among adults, use of multiple DSs increased with age. Overall, 23.5 and 31.5 percent of youth and adults, respectively, reported use of a multivitamin mineral, while 3.0 and 18.5 percent, respectively, reported vitamin D use. Most adults using a multivitamin mineral or vitamin D reported daily use.

“These results indicate that any DS and multiple DS intake is common in the United States, and national surveys, such as NHANES, should continue to monitor DS use among children, adolescents, and adults,” the authors write.