More than half of patients with rheumatic, musculoskeletal disease use OTC supplements
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Key takeaways:
- Daily supplement use was reported by 54.5% of patients with RMDs.
- There was “considerable” overlap of pain relievers with over-the-counter supplements, posing drug interaction risks.
More than 54% of patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases report daily use of over-the-counter supplements, with “considerable” intake alongside pain relievers, according to data published in Rheumatology Advances in Practice.
“Over the past few decades, the consumption of supplements has surged, with the global industry now valued at $300 billion,” Mehreen Soomro, of the Center for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues wrote. “People turn to supplements for various reasons, with one of the leading motivations being the desire to maintain healthy joints and prevent or ease arthritis.
“While supplements are often perceived as harmless because they can be obtained without a prescription, they are an unregulated industry and may still pose potential adverse effects or drug interactions,” they added.
To examine the prevalence and other details of supplement, sleep aid and pain reliever use among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, Soomro and colleagues surveyed patients at Salford Royal Hospital, in England. An advisory team including three patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and/or psoriatic arthritis provided feedback on survey design.
The survey was administered from Oct. 3, 2022, to March 21, 2024. Eligible responders were aged 18 years or older and were diagnosed with a rheumatic musculoskeletal condition.
Out of 876 patients who responded to the survey, 54.5% (n = 387) reported consuming supplements daily, according to the researchers. The median monthly expenditure on OTC medications, sleep aids, CBD products and supplements was £10 ($13.04), and the mean was £19.53 ($25.47). Across the cohort, monthly expenses were as high as £200 ($260.80).
Meanwhile, 82% of patients reported using pain relief medications, including prescription, non-prescription and OTC agents. NSAIDs were used by 51.1% of participants, paracematol by 73% and opioids by 20.5%. Sleep aid use was reported by 13%.
The most commonly used supplements were vitamin D (66%), multivitamins (32%), vitamin C (22%), vitamin B (19.4%), calcium (18.4%), omega 3/6 (18.1%), turmeric (16.4%), magnesium (16.1%), zinc (11.1%) and glucosamine (9.8%).
According to the researchers, there was a “considerable” amount of overlap between use of pain relievers and OTC supplements, which could raise the risk for dangerous drug interactions. OTC supplement use was reported by more than half (50.4%) of those who also used NSAIDs, and by 50.3% of those who also used opioids.
“There is a high prevalence of OTC supplements and non-prescription analgesia in patients with RMDs,” Soomro and colleagues wrote. “... As patients rely increasingly on such self-management strategies and access health information from a variety of sources online, it is especially important for health care professionals to proactively ask about such strategies in their consultations from a drug safety perspective.
“This is especially true as there are concerns about their interactions with other conventional medicines and other OTC supplements, their quality in an unregulated market, and their lack of standardized dosage,” they added. “Health care professionals also need to be well-equipped to provide reliable advice to patients on the scientific evidence of such medicines to help manage symptoms of pain, sleep and fatigue that can greatly impact quality of life.”
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