Daily Multivitamin Doesn’t Promote Longevity – Medical News
According to a meta-analysis of the North American population, people who take daily multivitamins have a mortality risk no lower than people who do not consume these products.
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Key question:
What is the association between long-term daily multivitamin use and all-cause mortality in healthy adults?
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Multivitamins (MVs) are used by one in three Americans to maintain (or improve) their health and prevent chronic diseases. However, such use does not meet the recommendations of public health authorities in this country, as there is no convincing evidence of their possible benefits. One study collected data from more than 390,000 people who were followed for about 20 years in three different cohorts in the United States.
In this cohort study of generally healthy US adults followed for more than 20 years, daily MV use was not associated with reduced mortality. In contrast, the authors found that daily MV use, compared with no MV use, was associated with a 4% increased risk of mortality. Results from a time-varying analysis that included a second assessment of MV use were consistent with the original pooled estimates and supported the conclusion of no mortality advantage.
Finally, by combining data from three large cohorts, we were able to examine heterogeneity among key population subgroups, including understudied sociodemographic subgroups, which was identified as a research gap in the review study. US Preventive Task Force (USPSTF) 2022. In stratified analyses, we found no evidence of effect modification by race/ethnicity, education, or diet quality.
In the U.S., CF use declined 6% between 1999 and 2011, but it remains popular, with nearly one in three adults reporting recent use. This downward trend may partly reflect growing uncertainty about the effectiveness of CF supplements for disease prevention following the publication of several studies that reported no benefit from CF use in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or mortality.
In 2014, the USPSTF concluded that “current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance between benefits and harms of multivitamin use for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer.” And in 2022, after conducting a pooled analysis of nine randomized clinical trials, the USPSTF’s conclusion remained largely the same, stating that “the evidence is insufficient to assess the balance between benefits and harms of multivitamin use for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer.”