People in the United States have taken multivitamin/mineral (MVM) and multivitamin (MV) dietary supplements since the early 1940s, when the first such products became available [1]. MVMs, in particular, are popular supplements, currently taken by an estimated one-third of all adults in the United States, and one-quarter of children and adolescents take an MVM or MV [2,3]. MVMs and MVs accounted for 14% of all purchases of supplements and 38% of all sales of vitamin and mineral supplements in the United States in 2019 [4]. U.S. sales of all dietary supplements totaled an estimated $55.7 billion in 2020, including $21.2 billion for all supplements containing vitamins, minerals, or both, of which $8.0 billion was for MVMs and MVs [4].
MVM and MV supplements have no standard or regulatory definition, such as what nutrients they must contain or in what amounts. Therefore, these terms refer to products that have widely varying compositions [5]. These products go by various names, including multis and multiples, and manufacturers determine the combinations and levels of vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients in them.
Many types of MVMs, the focus of this fact sheet, are available in the marketplace. One way to group them is as follows (Table 1).