JAMA Network Open, June 2026 | Chun Sing Lam, PhD et al., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
Americans are taking more supplements than at any point in the past 25 years, and the way they take them has changed. A study published in JAMA Network Open in June analyzed 11 cycles of national health survey data covering 63,442 US adults, and it found that overall supplement use climbed from 51% in 1999–2000 to 60% in the most recent survey period.
Multivitamin use held roughly steady, declining modestly from 35% to 31%. What grew, and grew sharply, was the use of targeted products alongside it. Vitamin D use rose nearly sixfold. Zinc more than doubled. Omega-3 supplementation jumped from 2% to 14%. Magnesium, biotin, vitamin K, probiotics, and collagen all showed substantial increases, with the sharpest inflection beginning around 2009–2010.
The pattern reflects a notable shift in how consumers think about supplementation. Rather than relying on a single daily multivitamin, adults are increasingly pairing a foundational product with targeted supplements aimed at immune, gut, joint, skin, or cardiovascular health.
Adults 65 and older drove the strongest growth, with use in that group climbing from 62% to 78%. The shift suggests a public that’s grown more sophisticated about supplementation—moving past a single daily multivitamin toward routines built around specific health goals, in a food landscape that doesn’t deliver what it once did.
