Dietary supplement research portfolio at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (809.1)

Abstract

The U.S. dietary supplement market increased 7.5% in 2012 compared to 2011, reaching $32.5 billion in sales. Therefore, federally supported research on dietary supplements is important to determine their health effects, safety and efficacy. A portfolio analysis was performed across the NIH and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) for the fiscal years 2009‐2011, using the databases Human Nutrition Research information Management system (HNRIM) and Computer Access to Research on Dietary Supplements (CARDS). The results indicated that total NIH dietary supplement‐related funding for FY 2009‐2011was $855M ($295M in 2009, $311M in 2010, and $249M in 2011). The institutes and centers with the highest investment in dietary supplement research were: NHLBI ($135M), NCI ($188M), NCCAM ($99M), NIDDK ($68M), NIEHS ($58M), and ODS ($32M). The dietary supplement ingredients receiving the most funding were: botanicals (22%), vitamins (20%), lipids (14%), and minerals and trace elements (10%). The top three outcome research areas were: cancer (61% of total dietary supplement investment), cardiovascular disease (47%), and women’s reproductive health (38%). In FY 2009, ODS provided 3.5% of the NIH investment in dietary supplement research, 3.6% in 2010, and 4.1 % in 2011. ODS funding focused on cellular, enzymatic, or molecular mechanisms (64% of total ODS funding). This portfolio analysis demonstrates that NIH has committed significant funding to dietary supplement research in an effort to expand the scientific knowledge base in the efficacy and safety of dietary supplements.