Taking a daily multivitamin pill may not actually reduce the risk of death and help healthy adults live longer, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the US National Cancer Institute evaluated data from nearly 400,000 healthy adults followed for more than 20 years.
The study found no association between regular multivitamin use and a lower risk of death.
Many adults take multivitamins regularly in hopes that the habit will improve their health, but the exact benefits and harms of taking them daily remain unclear, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal. Open Jama Networksaying.
Some reports suggested that one-third of all American adults take multivitamins in the hope that they will prevent any potential illness in the future.
Existing research investigating the link between intake and mortality is limited by short follow-up times.
To overcome this, the new study analyzed data from three large, geographically diverse studies involving more than 390,000 American adults who were followed for more than two decades.
Study participants were generally healthy, with no history of cancer or other chronic diseases, the researchers said.
With such a large data sample, the new research could mitigate the effects of potential biases that may have influenced previous studies.
For example, in previous studies, sicker participants may already have been more likely to increase their multivitamin use.
And previous research may have looked at people with generally healthier lifestyles as multivitamin takers.
The new long-term analysis showed that people who took multivitamins daily did not have a significantly lower risk of death from any cause compared with those who did not take the pills.
The researchers found no differences in mortality from cancer, heart disease, or cerebrovascular disease among those who took multivitamins every day.
The analysis also took into account other factors such as race and ethnicity, education and diet quality.
“In this cohort study of 390,124 US adults with no history of major chronic diseases, we found no evidence supporting increased longevity among healthy adults who take multivitamins regularly,” the researchers wrote.
“However, we cannot exclude the possibility that daily VM use may be associated with other aging-related health outcomes,” they added.
