Adverse Effects Associated with Multiple Categories of Dietary Supplements: The Military Dietary Supplement Use Study

About 50% of Americans and 70% of US military service members (SMs) regularly use dietary supplements (DSs) and some are associated with adverse effects (AEs). SMs are more likely to use unsafe DSs than civilians.

The aim of this investigation was to examine the prevalence of, and factors associated with, AEs.

Cross-sectional.

A stratified random sample of 200,000 US SMs from the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy were obtained from military workforce records. Eighteen percent (n = 26,681) of successfully contacted SMs (n = 146,365) volunteered to participate between December 2018 and August 2019. Participants completed a detailed online questionnaire on demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and AEs associated with DS use.

Prevalence of, and factors associated with, AEs among DS users.

Prevalence of AEs was calculated by DS categories. Linear trends, χ² statistics, and multivariable logistic regression examined associations between AEs and demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and number DSs consumed.

Proportion of DS users (≥ 1 time /week) reporting ≥1 AE was 18% overall, 20% for combination products (ie, weight loss, muscle building, and before/after workout supplements), 8% for purported prohormones, 6% for protein/amino acid products, 6% for multivitamin/multiminerals, 6% for individual vitamins/minerals, 4% for herbal products, and 2% for joint health products. Combination products are very popular in military personnel with nearly half of SMs regularly taking them. In multivariable analysis, reporting AEs were independently associated with female gender, younger age, higher body mass index, smoking, higher alcohol intake, service in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps (compared with Air Force), and consumption of a greater number of DSs.

A large proportion of SMs report experiencing AEs, especially users of combination products and purported prohormone supplements. This study presents contemporary data collected from a very large at-risk population on potentially hazardous categories of DSs.