Health-Related Behaviors
People who take dietary supplements are likely to be concerned with health-related issues. They eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise more regularly, and smoke and drink alcohol less often than their counterparts who do not take dietary supplements. The 1992 “National Health Interview Survey” found that the diets of dietary supplement users are lower in fat, higher in fiber, and higher in some vitamins and minerals than the diets of nonusers. A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that people who take a multivitamin, single-nutrient supplement, and at least one herbal supplement consume more fruits and vegetables than people who only take a multivitamin.
By contrast, a study of people entering the military (mostly young men) showed that the use of ergogenic aids, supplements such as steroid hormones and creatine that are used to increase muscle mass and strength, is associated with high-risk behaviors. People in this group are more likely to drink alcohol and to drink heavily, to ride in a car with a drunk driver or to drive drunk themselves, and to be in a physical altercation.
Across all age groups, most people who take a dietary supplement only consume one product, which is usually a multivitamin. The “National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III” found that 90 percent of children and 75 percent of teenagers who take dietary supplements only use one product. The 2001 “Dietary Supplement Barometer Survey” showed that about half of people who regularly take dietary supplements take multivitamins. Another one-third takes single-nutrient dietary supplements, the most popular of which are vitamin C, vitamin E, and calcium. Fewer, but a significant number, take herbal supplements or specialty dietary supplements for specific health or mental health conditions, such as depression. Recent data indicate that use of herbal dietary supplements has reached a plateau or decreased, while the use of condition-specific or specialty dietary supplements has increased.
Among people with known health conditions, dietary supplement use may differ from that of the general population. A study of more than 600 colon cancer survivors enrolled in a cancer-prevention trial found that 55 percent of them took at least one supplement; among those, 66 percent took more than one product, 13 percent took five or more products, 5 percent took fiber supplements, and about 5 percent took botanical and specialty supplements.
How often users take dietary supplements is somewhat unclear, and estimates vary across surveys. The 1992 “National Health Interview Survey” asked people about daily supplement use, whereas the 1986 survey asked people about dietary supplement use during the prior 2 weeks. The figures from the 1986 survey were substantially larger because they captured both daily and occasional users. The “Slone Survey” found that 40 percent of adults had used vitamin or mineral supplements during the prior week, and a 2001 Council for Responsible Nutrition survey found that 71 percent of people use dietary supplements at least occasionally: 42 percent are regular users, 22 percent are occasional users, and 7 percent are seasonal users.
According to the Nutrition Business Journal,while as much as 70 percent of the American population uses supplements, only about 40 percent uses them regularly. About 5 percent of adults are heavy users of dietary supplements, which equates with 10 million people who spend roughly $40 per month; 35 percent are regular users (75 million people who spend about $10 per month); 22 percent are occasional users (50 million people who spend about $4 per month); and 10 percent are rare users (20 million people who spend less than $2 per month on one or two purchases per year).
People are most likely to buy dietary supplements in supermarkets, drug stores, discount department stores, and health food stores (66 percent of total purchases). Others purchase dietary supplements from multilevel marketers (20 percent), through the mail (6 percent) or World Wide Web (2 percent), or from healthcare professionals (6 percent).
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