Dietary Supplement Use among Adult Cancer Survivors in the United States

Abstract

Many cancer patients initiate dietary supplement use after cancer diagnosis. How dietary supplement use contributes to the total nutrient intake among cancer survivors as compared with individuals without cancer needs to be determined. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate nutrient intakes from dietary supplements among cancer survivors in relation to their total nutrient intake and compare those with individuals without cancer. Methods: We evaluated the prevalence, dose, and reason for using dietary supplements among 2772 adult cancer survivors and 31,310 individuals without cancer who participated in the NHANES 2003-2016. Results: Cancer survivors reported a higher prevalence of any (70.4% vs. 51.2%) and multivitamin/mineral (48.9% vs. 36.6%) supplement use and supplement use of 11 individual vitamins and 8 minerals than individuals without cancer. Overall, cancer survivors had significantly higher amounts of nutrient intake from supplements but lower nutrient intakes from foods for the majority of the nutrients. Compared with individuals without cancer, cancer survivors had a higher percentage of individuals with inadequate intake (total nutrient intake