Taking multivitamins won't make you live any longer, research has found.
Scientists have discovered that healthy adults who take multivitamins daily are no less likely to die of any cause than those who don't, according to a new paper in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Therefore, there is no link between taking multivitamins and reduced likelihood of death.
Multivitamins typically contain a combination of essential vitamins and minerals. The exact composition can vary between brands and formulations, but common components include vitamins A, C, D, E, and K, several types of vitamin B, and minerals including calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and manganese.
"In the United States, nearly 1 in 3 adults report recent multivitamin (MV) use. Prevalence of use is higher among older adults, women, non-Hispanic White individuals, and those with a college education. Motivations for using MV include to maintain or improve health and prevent chronic disease; consequently, understanding the relationship between MV use and mortality is critically important to public health guidance " the authors wrote in the paper.
Previous research has found conflicting evidence for a link between mortality and multivitamin use. It has also been limited by short follow-up times with participants.
In the paper, the researchers describe how they analyzed data from nearly 400,000 healthy American adults from across over 20 years, none of which had a history of cancer or chronic disease. They discovered that there was no reduction in risk of death from any cause associated with multivitamin use, including cancer, heart disease or cerebrovascular diseases.
"In this cohort study of 390,124 generally healthy US adults with more than 20 years of follow-up, daily MV use was not associated with a mortality benefit," they wrote. "In contrast, we found that daily MV use vs nonuse was associated with 4% higher mortality risk."
The authors explain that this may be because of the type of people who try multivitamins: Those with age-related health issues may be more prone to taking them.
"It could be argued that those who are sick or older than 65 years are more likely to initiate MV use. This phenomenon could result in a noncausal positive association, since these individuals have a higher risk of mortality than their healthier or younger counterparts," they wrote.
The researchers adjusted their analysis for various confounding factors such as race and ethnicity, education, and diet quality and control for the fact that generally, healthier people might be more likely to use multivitamins.
The researchers note that their study has several limitations.
"First, it is an observational study and residual confounding by poorly measured or unmeasured confounders (eg, health care utilization) may bias risk estimates," they wrote. Second, there is the possibility for nondifferential exposure misclassification owing to faulty memory of sporadic MV usage."
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