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Why US Adults Use Dietary Supplements (2015-08-06)

Dietary supplement use among adults has increased over the past 30 years in the United States and currently about half of adults report using 1 or more dietary supplements.

Many characteristics of people who choose supplements are known: users tend to be older, have a lower body mass index (BMI) (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), are less likely to smoke and have higher educational attainment and socioeconomic status compared with nonusers, are more likely to report very good or excellent health, have health insurance, use alcohol moderately, and exercise more frequently than nonusers.

However, the actual motivations for use, that is, the reasons that people take dietary supplements remain unclear. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) began querying motivations for use of dietary supplements for the first time in 2007.
The purpose of this analysis was to examine motivations for use of dietary supplements by adults as well as to characterize the types of products that were used, the most common motivations for using them and to examine the role of physicians and health care practitioners in guiding choices about dietary supplements.

Data from adults (=20 years; n = 11 956) were examined in the 2007-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative, cross-sectional, population-based survey.

The most commonly reported reasons for using supplements were to “improve” (45%) or “maintain” (33%) overall health.

Women used calcium products for “bone health” (36%), whereas men were more likely to report supplement use for “heart health or to lower cholesterol” (18%).

Older adults (=60 years) were more likely than younger individuals to report motivations related to site-specific reasons like heart, bone and joint, and eye health.

Only 23% of products were used based on recommendations of a health care provider.

It seemed that some products were being used in many different ways by different people, making interpretation of motivations more complicated.
Virtually no one used products for asthma, allergies, diabetes mellitus, to improve sleep, or to aid in relaxation despite several products being marketed for these purposes.

These data lend credence to the “inverse supplement hypothesis” that many supplement users are healthy individuals who want to take an active role in their own health, and who perceive supplements as a type of “insurance” against poor health.

Multivitamin-mineral products were the most frequently reported type of supplement taken, followed by calcium and ω-3 or fish oil supplements.

Supplement users reported motivations related to overall health more commonly than for supplementing nutrients from food intakes. Use of supplements was related to more favorable health and lifestyle choices. Less than a quarter of supplements used by adults were recommended by a physician or health care provider.

For more information
Bailey RL, Gahche JJ, Miller PE, Thomas PR, Dwyer JT. Why US Adults Use Dietary Supplements. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(5):355-361.
doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2299

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