Introduction
Dietary supplements, often implicated in preventable adverse drug events, are also a leading cause of morbidity and mortality from poisonings in children and adolescents in the United States. In a prior study, we found that one-third of children and adolescents used dietary supplements and that the use of alternative medicines increased between 2003 and 2014. Despite substantial growth in the dietary supplement market, and recent evidence of the harmful effects of supplements on children and adolescents, current data on their use in younger US populations are lacking. We used nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to estimate the prevalence of dietary supplement use, including both nutritional products and alternative medicines, among children and adolescents in the United States.
The full study can be viewed at Pediatrics Open Science.
Recio B, Li Q, Guadamuz J, and Qato DM; Changes in dietary supplement use among children and adolescents in the United States, 2015–2016 to 2021–2023. Pediatrics Open Science, May 2026; 2 (2): 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1542/pedsos.2026-001430
