A daily multivitamin was linked to modestly better ratings of heart-related symptoms and their impact on daily life in a secondary analysis of the COSMOS trial. After three years, older adults assigned the supplement had better questionnaire scores than those assigned a placebo. EurekAlert! / American Society for Nutrition (source, opens in new tab)
EurekAlert! / American Society for NutritionA daily multivitamin may help older adults maintain functional healthOpen source (opens in new tab)
The finding was presented at the NUTRITION 2026 conference and remains preliminary. It concerns participants’ reports of symptoms and limitations, rather than demonstrated gains in physical capability or protection against disease.
The analysis included more than 16,000 people aged 60 and over. COSMOS assigned participants by chance to a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement (Centrum Silver), a cocoa-extract supplement, both, or placebos. This random assignment strengthens the comparison between the multivitamin and placebo groups; the reported finding came from an additional analysis of the trial’s data.
Researchers used the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, which asks about cardiovascular symptoms and related physical limitations. The multivitamin group’s scores were better after three years, and the difference was statistically significant. The largest differences concerned the burden of symptoms and a combined score covering symptoms and physical ability, both based on participants’ answers.
The available conference report describes the benefit as modest but lacks the detailed results and methods of a full peer-reviewed paper. Those details are needed to judge whether the difference in scores represents a noticeable improvement in daily life.
- EurekAlert! / American Society for Nutrition · InstitutionA daily multivitamin may help older adults maintain functional healtheurekalert.org · opens in new tab
