Many widely available brands of women's multivitamins are high in quality and low in cost. Vitamin prices can vary widely from year to year and among stores, making it difficult to name a single best-priced brand. The best choice for you is a multivitamin that is high in quality, meets your specific nutritional needs and fits your budget. Ask your doctor for recommendations and choose a multivitamin from a well-known manufacturer.
Access to Multivitamins
A study published in the May-June 2009 “Public Health Reports” examined pregnant and nonpregnant women across various demographics and discovered that income was a significant factor in whether a woman consistently used a multivitamin. As women’s household incomes went up, so did the chance that they would take multivitamins. This suggests that the perceived high cost of multivitamins may prevent many women from taking them. However, when it comes to multivitamins, high cost is not the only predictor of high quality.
Affordable Multivitamins
In 2010, "Consumer Reports" tested a selection of the most popular multivitamin brands available at CVS for quality, toxic contamination and nutritional accuracy. In 2011, AARP researchers conducted a similar study of multivitamins from Costco, BJs and Walmart, including those stores’ house brands. Both found a number of widely available and inexpensive multivitamins to be high in quality, consistent with the nutrition claims on their labels and low in toxins and contaminants.
Quality and Purity
To ensure quality regardless of price, look for a multivitamin with the United States Pharmacopeia, or USP, Dietary Supplement Verification mark. This mark shows that the supplement has undergone testing to confirm quality and purity. The USP testing is voluntary, but all vitamin manufacturers in the United States are also required by law to comply with the Food and Drug Administration’s Current Good Manufacturing Practices, or CGMPs, which set standards for up-to-date quality control, testing and safety.
Women’s Multivitamin Needs
Most women's multivitamins contain the Recommended Dietary Allowance, or RDA, of many important nutrients, including folic acid to prevent birth defects for women who are or may become pregnant. Look for a multivitamin with no more than 2,500 IU of vitamin A, as too much vitamin A has been linked to osteoporosis in women. Menstruating women should also get 18 milligrams of iron and 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day. You may need to take an additional calcium supplement or add calcium to your diet to meet these needs. If you are pregnant, your doctor can recommend or prescribe the appropriate prenatal multivitamin.
References
- AARP; Multivitamin Test: Cheap Often Best for People and Pets; Candy Sagon; June 2011
- Consumer Reports Health.org; Multivitamins; September 2010
- Linus Pauling Institute Research Report; What to Look for in a Multivitamin Supplement; Jane Higdon; 2003
- US Food and Drug Administration: Current Good Manufacturing Practices for Dietary Supplements
- “Public Health Reports”; Multivitamin Use in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; K. M. Sullivan et al.; May-June 2009
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