What adults put in their medicine cabinets has shifted dramatically over the past generation — and the scale of that shift carries real implications for how clinicians think about drug interactions, nutrient redundancy, and population-level health spending. A nationally representative analysis spanning nearly a quarter century captures just how far supplement culture has penetrated American life, with older adults leading the trend.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study tracked dietary supplement use across a large U.S. cohort from 1999 through 2023, finding a meaningful rise in overall prevalence over that period. The increase was most pronounced among adults aged 60 and older, a demographic already managing multiple prescription medications. Multivitamins remained common, but the data also point to growth in the use of targeted single-ingredient supplements — patterns that likely reflect both direct-to-consumer marketing and growing public interest in proactive health management. Specific prevalence figures and subgroup breakdowns are detailed in the full publication.
This study lands in a context where supplement science is genuinely contested. While certain compounds have solid evidentiary backing for specific populations — vitamin D and calcium for bone health in older women, for instance — many widely-used supplements lack robust randomized-controlled trial data supporting their use in healthy adults. The surge in older-adult use is particularly worth scrutinizing: polypharmacy is already a leading driver of adverse events in that age group, and many supplements interact meaningfully with anticoagulants, statins, and thyroid medications. The finding that use is rising fastest precisely in the population most vulnerable to interactions is a clinically important signal. This is a large, longitudinal observational study, which documents trends without establishing causation or health outcomes. Still, as a surveillance dataset, it offers a valuable baseline for regulators, clinicians, and researchers — and suggests the supplement industry's growth is not merely commercial noise but a durable behavioral shift.