Among people who use dietary supplements, fish oils are nearly as popular as multivitamins, and CoQ10 use is comparable to calcium, according to a recent survey by ConsumerLab.com, White Plains, NY.

At higher age levels, multivitamin use was found to decline slightly while use of other supplements, such as vitamin D, rose dramatically.

The survey is based on responses collected in November from 6000 supplement users who receive ConsumerLab.com’s e-newsletter.

“We conduct the annual survey to help direct our lab testing toward products of greatest interest to our subscribers; but the survey also yields unparalleled insight into the preferences of people who use supplements and nutritional products,” said Tod Cooperman, MD, president of ConsumerLab.com.

The survey found that multivitamins were used by 74% of all respondents, followed in popularity by fish oil (72%), calcium (55%) and CoQ10 (51%) supplements. Among people using 10 or more supplements each day, use of fish oil (85%) exceeded that of multivitamins (76%), and use of CoQ10 (79%) exceeded that of calcium (68%).

Use of most supplements increased with age, while use of multivitamins declined slightly. Dramatic increases with age were seen for vitamin D (use increased from 21% among those under age 35 to 47% among those 65 years and older) and CoQ10 (use increased from 29% to 60% for the two age groups, respectively).