Update on Dietary Supplements in NHANES

The National Center for Health Statistics periodically conducts the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey or NHANES to assess the health and nutritional status of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States. Beginning in 1999 this survey became continuous. Interviewers collect detailed information about use of dietary supplements during the household interview. Unlike in the past, the current survey does not limit the types of supplements respondents can report. Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, oils, botanicals, enzymes, metabolites, and extracts, to name a few. This paper briefly reviews the types of dietary-supplement information collected during the household interview and staff efforts to build a dietary supplements concentration database, called DUMPS, based on the products reported in the survey. Plans are being made to update the supplement names and concentration information each year the product is reported.