No Mortality Benefit with Multivitamins Use

A US cohort study concludes that there is no mortality benefit of multivitamin use. The study included 390 124 participants (median age, 61.5 years; 55.4% male) without major chronic diseases from 3 prospective cohort studies. 40.9% of participants were never smokers, and 40.3% were college educated. Among daily multivitamin users, 49.3% and 42.0% were female and college educated, compared with 39.3% and 37.9% among nonusers, respectively. In contrast, 11.0% of daily users, compared with 13.0% of nonusers, were current smokers. Multivitamin use was not associated with lower all-cause mortality risk in the first (initial 12 years, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios [HR], 1.04) or second (last 15 years, multivariable-adjusted HR, 1.04) periods of follow-up, with 164 762 deaths during follow-up up to 27 years (median 23.5 years). HRs were similar for major causes of death and time-varying analyses. The findings confirm the mostly negative results of prior studies and make a case for refocusing nutrition interventions on healthy food, rather than supplements. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/