CHPA launches the Dietary Supplement Index to help educate stakeholders on the role of supplements in healthcare

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At its 2022 Self-Care Leadership Summit, The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA; Washington, D.C.) launched a new data-driven tool that collates market data, geographic and demographic data, government health and nutrition, and consumer survey data. The tool, called the Dietary Supplement Index (DSX), looks at dietary supplements in primary categories using the market research firm SPINS as a primary source.

The DSX is a score that reflects dietary supplement category/subcategory unit sales for a period (quarter/year), and can be calculated by county, state, or regional level, and then compared across demographics. The baseline score is “100” for 2019 in each category and subcategory based on pre-pandemic sales. Changes in the DSX score can be further interpreted by overlaying the DSX with other public data sources from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to name a few examples.

CHPA will use the tool help make the case to legislators, health insurers, large employers, and benefits consultants that dietary supplements should be included in healthcare plans. The DSX can also be used to encourage healthcare providers to recommend dietary supplements to patients as part of their regular routine.

Index-By Category-All Standard Regions. Courtesy of CHPA

“We are excited to launch this new tool as a way for our industry to better understand how sales and use of supplements to maintain health and manage disease is evolving over time, and what could be driving those trends,” said Duffy MacKay, CHPA senior vice president, Dietary Supplements, in a press release. “We believe this tool can help shape the narrative around the value of dietary supplements as we continue to analyze the DSX and underlying factors.”

CHPA’s initial analysis of the DSX found that between 2019 and 2021, the overall DSX store increased nationally for every category with growth being led by sleep, immunity, and brain health. According to CHPA, the spike in immunity and brain health mirrors two significant trends: increased public attention of COVID-19, increased public anxiety about the economy, and complications from work-at-home requirements.