Intake of Minerals from Food Supplements in a German Population—A Nationwide Survey

Dietary supplements are used by more than half of adults, although to our knowledge, the reasons motivating use have not been previously examined in US adults using nationally representative data. The purpose of this analysis was to examine motivations for dietary supplement use, characterize the types of products used for the most commonly reported motivations, 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. Multivitamin-mineral products were the most frequently reported type of supplement taken, followed by calcium and ω-3 or fish oil supplements. Supplement users are more likely to report very good or excellent health, have health insurance, use alcohol moderately, eschew cigarette smoking, and exercise more frequently than nonusers. 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.

To examine information collected from the 2002 Health and Diet Survey regarding the use dietary supplements and self-reported health problems that the survey participants believed were related to dietary supplements. The US Food and Drug Administration sponsors a Health and Diet Survey to track trends of consumer awareness, attitudes, and practices related to health and diet issues. By telephone, the 2002 Health and Diet Survey staff interviewed English-speaking noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 years or older in households in the 50 states and District of Columbia. Survey respondents were queried as to whether or not they had taken a dietary supplement during the past year and if they had experienced any health problem that they attributed to supplement use. Seventy-three percent of US noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 years or older who spoke English and resided in households with telephones used a dietary supplement in the previous 12 months and 4% of them had experienced an adverse event that they believed might be related to dietary supplement use. Eighty-five percent of supplement users reported taking multivitamins/multiminerals and 13.3% of adverse events reported were attributed to multivitamins/multiminerals. A higher proportion of supplement users with adverse events than users without adverse events were concurrently taking supplements and prescription drugs or were taking supplements instead of prescription drug to treat or prevent a health condition. This self-reported data describes the prevalence of supplement use and related adverse events. Multivitamins/multiminerals accounted for much of the supplements use and was attributed to a little more than 10% of the adverse events reported. Food and nutrition-professionals and other health care professionals should take special care to learn about their patients' use of these products.

Background Recent European Union regulation requires setting of maximum amount of micronutrients in dietary supplements or foods taking into account the tolerable upper intake level (ULs) established by scientific risk assessment and population reference intakes. Objective To collect and evaluate recently available data on intakes of selected vitamins and minerals from conventional foods, food supplements and fortified foods in adults and children. Intake of calcium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, zinc, folic acid, niacin and total vitamin A/retinol, B6, D and E was derived from nationally representative surveys in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. Intake of high consumers, defined as the 95th percentile of each nutrient, was compared to the UL. Results For most nutrients, adults and children generally consume considerably less than the UL with exceptions being retinol, zinc, iodine, copper and magnesium. The major contributor to intakes for all nutrients and in all countries is from foods in the base diet. The patterns of food supplements and voluntary fortification vary widely among countries with food supplements being responsible for the largest differences in total intakes. In the present study, for those countries with data on fortified foods, fortified foods do not significantly contribute to higher intakes for any nutrient. Total nutrient intake expressed as percentage of the UL is generally higher in children than in adults. Conclusion The risk of excessive intakes is relatively low for the majority of nutrients with a few exceptions. Children are the most vulnerable group as they are more likely to exhibit high intakes relative to the UL. There is a need to develop improved methods for estimating intakes of micronutrients from fortified foods and food supplements in future dietary surveys.