(HealthDay News) — Dietary supplement 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, PhD, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, MD, and colleagues presented prevalence estimates for dietary supplement use using data from the 2017 to March 2020 prepandemic National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants included 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 35% of children and adolescents and 58% percent of adults used at least one dietary supplement in the past 30 days between 2017 and March 2020. Except for children aged 12 to 24 months, use was higher among females than males. Among adults, dietary supplement use increased with income and education, and use of multiple supplements increased with age.
Higher dietary supplement use was reported among non-Hispanic Asian and non-Hispanic White adults than Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black adults. Overall, 23% and 31% of youth and adults, respectively, reported use of a multivitamin mineral, while 3% and 18%, respectively, reported vitamin D use. Most adults using a multivitamin mineral or vitamin D reported daily use.
“These results indicate that any dietary supplement and multiple dietary supplement intake is common in the United States, and national surveys, such as NHANES, should continue to monitor dietary supplement use among children, adolescents and adults,” the authors wrote.
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