A new U.S. study published in the journal JAMA Network Open has found that multivitamins do not help people live longer. To find out the association between long-term daily multivitamin use and overall mortality and death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, researchers analysed data from three large studies involving 3,90,124 healthy adults. The average age of the participants was about 61 years at the start of the study, and they had no history of cancer or other chronic diseases.
During more than 20 years of follow-up, 1,64,762 people died, with 49,836 deaths attributed to cancer, 35,060 deaths to heart diseases and 9,275 deaths to cerebrovascular disease. After accounting for factors such as race and ethnicity, education and diet, the study found that people who regularly took multivitamins did not have a lower risk of death, compared with those who did not take multivitamins.
In fact, the study found a slightly increased mortality risk (4 per cent) with daily multivitamin use. Several other studies have also concluded that multivitamin use does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer or mortality.