Appendix 1: Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) 2022 Activities and Accomplishments

A major focus of ODS staff is to coordinate and initiate collaborations across National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other government and constituent communities that are key to fulfilling the ODS mission. Exhibit A1 describes ODS's extramural funding vehicles used to achieve its mission. The value of ODS's efforts is evident in its ability to engage and manage the wide range of expertise required to accomplish its goals. The extramural grants program especially involves hands-on, proactive engagement with NIH program officers and institutes, centers, and offices (ICO) directors. This outreach informs NIH staff of the availability of ODS programs such as co-fund opportunities and administrative supplements and communicates knowledge gaps and research interests identified by ODS through the Population Studies Program and NIH interest groups. The proactive nature of ODS outreach permits resource pooling and coordination of NIH research efforts on dietary supplements and health.

The following are key 2022 ODS activities and accomplishments as they reflect ODS's strategic plan goals and each program's specific objectives.

GOAL 1: Expand the scientific knowledge base on dietary supplements by stimulating and supporting a full range of biomedical research across NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) and by developing, coordinating, and contributing to relevant initiatives, workshops, meetings, and conferences.

Funding Program
   Objectives
   The ODS Grants and Funding Program strives to identify supplement-related public health areas and coordinate trans-NIH efforts.

Grants and Extramural Funding
   Objectives

• To support innovative research that fosters an improved understanding of the role of dietary supplements in health maintenance and disease prevention.

   Key Activities and Accomplishments

• ODS provided support to 53 extramural grants (valued at $7.4 million) across 11 NIH Institutes and Centers.
• Of these grants, 7 were related to the NIH Consortium for Advancing Research on Botanical and Other Natural Products (CARBON) Program (total $2.8 million).

• To provide competitive scholarship funding opportunities for NIH early career intramural scientists.
• To increase the exposure to and awareness of research on dietary supplements among early to mid-career researchers in related fields.

• ODS supported 5 junior/emerging scientists in NIH intramural laboratories, through intra-agency agreements across 5 different NIH Institutes, under the ODS Research Scholars Program. The total value of these ODS Scholars Program Awards was $478K.
• ODS supported 2 research projects under the Bench-to-Bedside (B2B) Program through intra-agency agreements with the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The total value of these B2B Program Awards was $203K.

• To identify overarching program themes and research focus and to develop notices of funding opportunities jointly with ICO partners.
• To develop methods and data required to understand and test the biological effects of inherently complex natural products, especially botanicals, both food and nonfood, on resilience in humans or animal models.

• With the publication of the CARBON Funding Opportunity Announcements in 2019 the Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Centers (BDSRC) pilot project award eligibility was broadened. Proposed projects may now be led by others in addition to BDSRC awardee faculty, including any researchers who can propose a meritorious and mutually useful pilot project in collaboration with one of the awarded BDSRC. CARBON extended its consortium to 3additional institutions via pilot project awards
• In 1 pilot study, researchers at Auburn University were funded to collaborate with the Botanicals Enhancing Neurological and Functional Resilience in Aging (BENFRA) Center to analyze potential drug interactions of the ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extracts being used in early stage studies by the BENFRA investigators.
• Two additional pilot projects were awarded to groups at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and at Ohio State University.
• The 5 current CARBON Centers published at least 12 papers in calendar year 2022. Highlights include publications that:
  • Introduced the Natural Products Magnetic Resonance Database (NP-MRD) and the U41 (Center for High Content Functional Annotation of Natural Products)-developed platform.
  • Described the apparent contributions of additional, non-withanolide, compounds from ashwagandha that impart resilience to aging in a fruit fly model.
  • Described a mechanism through which the anthocyanin malvidin-3-O-glucoside, present in grapes, provides resilience to stress.
  • Described a new methodological approach to the standardization of Arthrospira platensis (also known as spirulina) extracts (Immulina).

• To collaborate with NIH Institutes and federal agencies for the purpose of jointly characterizing patterns of dietary supplement use in the U.S. population.
• To collaborate with NIH Institutes and federal agencies to determine the contribution of dietary supplements to the nutritional status of the population and subgroups.
• To identify nutrients requiring additional research on dietary exposure, content in foods and supplements, biomarkers of intake, and relationship of intake to risk of health conditions and risk factors and the role of the nutrients in physiological systems.

• ODS supported the 2021–2022 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collection of dietary supplement data and selected nutritional biomarkers; this includes providing funding, providing input on collection protocols, and reviewing data files as part of quality control. Data are available to the research community on the NHANES website.
• ODS worked with NHANES on reviewing data collected during 2019–March 2020, that included new survey items proposed by ODS. ODS evaluated thyroid biomarkers and assessed the quality of the dietary supplement data collected during this period.
• ODS staff participated in an interagency Iodine Working Group coordinated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• ODS collaborated with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), CDC, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Cancer Institute, Administration on Aging (AoA) and others on developing a series of webinars on assessing intakes and dietary supplement use across the lifespan. ODS took the lead on suggesting webinars of interest to the Dietary Guidelines Committee report for best practices for dietary assessment in pregnant women and children aged 6–11 years. The recorded webinars and full report are available at NASEM.
• ODS worked with NASEM to develop a series of webinars titled “Assessing Intake of Food and Dietary Supplements in Older Adults.” These webinars include the challenges associated with gathering information on dietary intake in groups that live in a variety of places and may have cognitive issues and conditions such as frailty.
• ODS collaborated with AoA in designing and evaluating survey questions of participants in home-delivered and congregate meals and with the CMS in its surveys of Medicare recipients to obtain information on dietary supplement use, malnutrition, and frailty.
• ODS participated in meetings with FDA about the safety of dietary supplements for body building, weight loss, and energy. The group has worked on finding and evaluating datasets that could inform the safety of these supplements.
• ODS participated in the Joint Agency Nutrition Working Group with the FDA and other senior nutrition staff at NIH to inform each other of recent and upcoming efforts that can benefit from cross-agency input.
• ODS staff participated and have leadership roles in several large federal consortia, particularly related to nutrition from birth to 24 months of age, and the Human Milk Composition Consortium.
• ODS staff worked with staff at CDC to assess biotin dietary supplement use in children and adults. Results will be presented at the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service conference in 2023 and will be published in a manuscript later in 2023.

• To coordinate the collection and harmonization of data on commonalities related to resilience outcomes, phenotype patterns, and measurements of resilience.
• To facilitate the development of research tools to enhance the advancement of resilience research. • To increase understanding of the health impacts and biological effects of dietary supplements among diverse populations (e.g., active-duty military, pregnant women, centenarians, survivors within high-risk populations).
• To strengthen knowledge related to the effectiveness of nutrient and botanical supplements toward resilience health outcomes.
• To advance the understanding of multi-system mechanisms of dietary supplements with respect to resilience health outcomes.

• ODS collaborated with the Uniformed Services University (USU) Center for Health and Military Performance and published articles on the efficacy of dietary ingredients in preserving energy production and preventing heat-induced skeletal muscle injury.
• ODS established a cooperative agreement with USU, “Dietary Supplement Ingredients Promoted for Immune Health,” which resulted in publications, a podcast series, and a social media education campaign.
• ODS developed a plan to identify and collate tools and metrics used by NIH ICOs to study resilience through the coordination of the Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group, establish a resilience definition and conceptual model, and develop a Resilience Research Design Tool.

• To provide leadership on dietary supplement research and educational activities within the federal government.
• To coordinate and support the development of collaborative initiatives to address gaps in dietary supplement research.
• To increase collaborations on dietary supplement research within NIH and the federal government.

• ODS continued to lead the Federal Working Group on Dietary Supplements (FWGoDS, which includes representatives of most NIH ICOs and other federal agencies. This effort allowed ODS to share some of the latest information on dietary supplement research.
• ODS continued coordination and leadership of the Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group and Scientific Interest Group (SIG) that allows ODS to pursue discussions of potentially new approaches and study designs for investigating any health benefits of dietary supplement use.
• ODS established the NIH Dietary Supplement Research Coordinating Committee (DSRCC) to increase collaboration among NIH ICOs whose programs include work that focuses on dietary supplements and the intersection of dietary supplement, natural product, and nutrition research. The DSRCC is focused on research coordination through the exchange of programmatic and scientific information, collaborative planning, and the implementation of relevant activities and initiatives.

GOAL2: Enhance the dietary supplement research workforce through support and coordination of training and career development.

• To support early and mid-career scientists with opportunities to gain experience in the study of the role of dietary supplements and/or their ingredients in health promotion and disease prevention.
• To enhance the dietary supplement research workforce through training and career development opportunities within and outside of NIH.

• ODS contributed funding to 5 extramural training, career development, and fellowship grants valued at $216K, including:
  • One D43 research training program titled “Research Training Center for Botanicals and Chronic Diseases in Tajikistan and Indonesia” was supported in collaboration with Fogarty International Center.
  • One T32 institutional training grant titled “Predoctoral Training: Innovative Technologies for Natural Products and Integrative Medicine Research” was supported by ODS in collaboration with National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
  • Three F31 fellowship grants were supported by ODS in collaboration with NCCIH for research projects on botanicals.

• To support foundational research in natural products for the purpose of increasing the value of future clinical trials, while providing a rich environment for training and career development.
• To facilitate the coordination of training opportunities to postgraduate and graduate students through CARBON Centers.

• Through its support of the CARBON Centers, ODS contributed directly to the training of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting and junior faculty affiliated with the centers.

• To improve analytical proficiency skills through education and training initiatives, quality assurance programs to help improve laboratory performance, and dissemination of information via meeting presentations and journal publications.
• To promote advances in analytical laboratory proficiency and capability by coordinating and supporting outreach and education in chemical and biological characterization of dietary supplements and their bioactive ingredients.

• The AMRM Program continues to support postdoctoral researchers and earlier career scientists at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and USDA.
• The AMRM Program continues to support NIST in administering the Dietary Supplement Laboratory Quality Assurance Programs (DSQAP) to educate analysts in support of the measurement needs of the food, dietary supplement, and clinical communities.

• To provide a thorough overview and grounding about issues, concepts, unknowns, and controversies about dietary supplements and supplement ingredients.
• To offer a brief course in fundamental knowledge of dietary supplements to academics, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows; healthcare practitioners; and other professionals with advanced biomedical degrees.

• The annual practicum was conducted virtually in 2022 and for the second consecutive year was open to the public. Previously, applications were required and only 100 students were accepted. The 2022 practicum was attended by 693 professionals, half of whom were from academia (faculty, research staff, students, and postdoctoral fellows). The other half included a mix of health professionals, government employees, and industry representatives. Most attendees (605) were from the United States, with an additional 88 attendees representing 36 other countries. The practicum recordings are available online.

GOAL 3: Foster development, coordination, and dissemination of research resources and tools to enhance the quality of dietary supplement research.

• To develop methods and resources to accelerate research on complex natural products such as botanicals for human health and to conduct relevant research and disseminate the results.
• To support the Center for Natural Product Technology, Methodology, and Productivity Optimization (NP-TEMPO) with a focus on developing methods to accelerate research on complex natural products such as botanicals for human health and on collaborations to support the development of methods that will be directly applicable to study the biological effects of animal- and plant-derived foods and dietary supplements.
• To establish a resource that will house the majority of the world’s natural products nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data in a format that allows simple crosslinking with other data repositories and provides tools for rapid deposit to and interrogation of the database to facilitate search and comparison of spectral data and associated structures while also allowing for other groups to develop additional tools using the deposited data.

• The NP-TEMPO published 3 papers:
  • Two papers focused on NPAnalyst, the integrated method platform. The initial paper presented details about how one of its component tools can be used to associate compounds from a mixture with detected activities. The second paper focused on the fully developed version of NPAnalyst.
  • The third paper analyzed optimization of setting lower limits for detection of metabolites in chemically complex natural products when using various untargeted high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
• The NP-TEMPO conducted a multi-lab comparison of a variety of approaches to inferring compounds from mass spectrometry data on chemically complex natural products with all participating labs analyzing the same samples.
• Supported in part by ODS, the NP-MRD Center is the world’s largest natural products NMR database, with more than 280,000 compounds, including more than 20,000 unique compound entries that are not found in any other NMR database. The database is searchable by structures, species, and NMR data similarity, and each compound’s data card links to a variety of relevant external databases. NP-MRD investigators introduced the database in January 2022 in a paper in Nucleic Acids Research as well as in sessions at relevant conferences throughout 2022.

• To support development and dissemination of resources that scientists and analysts need to ensure that the characterization of dietary supplements, natural products, and nutrient biomarkers are precise, accurate, and reliable.
• To catalyze analytical method development and validation for quantitative and qualitative characterization of dietary supplements and their ingredients.
• To advance development of reference materials (RMs) for dietary ingredients and natural products.

• As a result of ODS contract awards, 3 new calibration solution certified RMs were made available for dietary supplement ingredients.
• ODS collaboration with USDA resulted in the development of improved methodological approaches to characterize and authenticate botanical dietary supplement ingredients.
• ODS support of USDA research facilitated efforts to incorporate chemical analyses of botanical dietary supplement ingredients in the Food Data Central database and develop software tools to aid scientists’ characterization of dietary ingredients, constituents, or their metabolites.
• ODS collaboration with NIST resulted in 5 newly issued or updated RMs for dietary supplement matrices and the maintenance of more than 30 dietary supplement–specific RMs.
• ODS collaboration with NIST resulted in 4 newly issued or updated RMs for the clinical measurement of nutrients and their metabolites and the maintenance of more than 10 clinical laboratory RMs.
• ODS collaborated with NIST to administer 2 DSQAP exercises, with more than 10 total studies, to enable laboratories to improve the accuracy of their analytical measurements of nutrients, phytochemicals, and contaminants in foods and dietary supplements.
• ODS contracted to develop an online dietary supplement RM database and search tool to aid researchers and industry scientists in identifying RMs that meet their analytical needs.
• ODS AMRM staff devised and initiated a multi-laboratory investigation of the commutability of new RMs for clinical vitamin D measurements. This project involved the coordination of collaborative efforts from NIST, CDC, national survey labs, academic researchers, and commercial vitamin D assay providers.
• ODS supported outreach/educational presentations by NIST staff at 3 scientific and regulatory conferences.
• ODS supported 14 research and review manuscripts that were published or submitted for peer review. • The AMRM director participated in a podcast describing the use and benefits of certified RMs in the analysis of dietary supplements.
• ODS-supported RMs for dietary supplements or clinical measurements were utilized in at least 7 peer-reviewed research publications
• ODS-supported AMRM collaborators gave 7 research and program overview presentations at national scientific conferences and dietary supplement-focused working group panels.

Population Studies Program
    Objectives

• To lead efforts to address methodological issues in assessing dietary and dietary supplement intakes in epidemiological and other large studies.
• To collaborate with federal partners and help coordinate the improvement of data collection and analysis tools for total nutrient consumption (food and dietary supplements).

• ODS collaborated with USDA and FDA to develop the second release of a database of iodine content of food and beverages. New work is under way to develop databases for iodine uptake inhibitors, nitrates, and nitrites, and purines and methylxanthine (e.g., caffeine) compounds.
• ODS worked with other nutrition staff at NIH to provide input for an extramural NIDDK study on gestational diabetes that did not initially include a dietary component. The investigators have agreed to include the dietary component in FY2022.
• ODS staff continued as co-chair of an Implementation Working Group for the NIH Nutrition Strategic plan (working group title “Nutrition Across the Lifespan”). The group developed and presented initiatives for the implementation plans and continues to provide input on programs across the NIH that support strategic goals related to nutrition across the lifespan.
• ODS initiated discussions and made a request to the NCHS Division of Health Care Statistics to include survey questions on the periodically administered National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. ODS submitted 2 questions for consideration on the survey, which underwent cognitive testing in 2022 for possible inclusion in the 2023 survey. These survey questions, asking about the use of an electronic health record (EHR) to record dietary supplement usage, would complement the survey questions on dietary supplements collected in the NHANES survey. In 2022 ODS collaborated with Medicare Beneficiaries Survey (MCBS) staff in devising revisions in procedures owing to baseline data challenges due to Covid 19 lockdowns and participant reluctance to engage in in-person visits. ODS staff continued to refine and adjust items for MCBS based on results of pretest and limitations of funding available.
• ODS created a compilation of characteristics of EHR vendors’ software programs and capabilities to understand both how dietary supplement information can be collected and linked to the drug knowledge database used in an EHR and whether individual EHR systems are capable of interfacing with other EHRs.
• ODS collaborated with others within the federal government and in academia to develop a measure of total nutrient intake that included nutrient containing dietary supplements and published the results in a peer-reviewed journal, along with other papers using the techniques.
• ODS staff participated in many activities associated with nutrition and supplement use in older adults, including:
  • Participation in the HHS-wide Older Individuals Collaborative on Nutrition Group.
  • Participation in activities of several NIH SIGs on Chronic Inflammation, Comorbidity, Aging, and Screening.
  • Participation in the design and presentation of a workshop and subsequently in manuscript preparation on Animal Models for Aging Research sponsored by National Institute on Aging.
  • Initiation of a collaboration with outside experts to produce a narrative review on malnutrition frailty and quality of life in older adults.
• ODS collaborated with NHANES on data collection methods for infant formula and iron and iodine status in pregnant/lactating women and infants. 
• ODS continued to publish articles in peer-reviewed literature and made presentations at national meetings on dietary supplement use and its consequences among those of various age/life stages and risks.

• To support the development, improvement, expansion, and deployment of dietary supplement databases.
• To coordinate the integration of federal databases that include dietary supplement data.

• ODS maintains the Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD), the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Database (DSID), and the Computer Access to Research on Dietary Supplements (CARDS) database in collaboration with other federal partners.

• To maintain and expand a database with labels of dietary supplement products sold in the United States.
• To perform program and policy research and communicate findings.
• To provide training to researchers via presentations, posters, and articles in peer-reviewed journals.

• DSLD includes more than 156,000 labels and is accessible through a public website and a mobile version.
• DSLD data are being used to compare nutrient needs/dietary intake gaps with multivitamin/mineral (MVM) and prenatal supplements. Results for child MVM supplements were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in late 2021, and results for adult MVM were submitted as an abstract to the National Nutrient Databank Annual Meeting in May 2022. ODS staff presented a keynote at the National Nutrient Databank conference on dietary supplement databases, and this will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Staff presented at several conferences and/or symposiums on dietary supplements featuring the DSLD, including:
  • Workshop on standardization of nomenclature and interoperability between federal food, drug, and dietary supplement databases for the NIH Nutrition Research Coordinating Committee on January 6, 2022.
  • On-demand session and several abstracts at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in June 2022.
  • Abstracts at meetings and standard setting and professional societies (AOAC International and others) on DSLD-related topics.
• ODS staff collaborated with FDA and other federal partners on use of DSLD data for evaluating weight loss products and with members of Department of Defense and USU to better meet the needs of armed service members.
• ODS with federal collaborators published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on the DSLD and DSID.

• To maintain an analytical dietary supplement ingredient database complementary to the DSLD.
• To provide data that can be used to develop more precise estimates of nutrient intake from dietary supplements.
• To support use of the DSID database for public health research.
• To conduct analyses of dietary supplement ingredient concentrations, composition, and dosage form performance quality.

• DSID staff completed updated analyses of children’s MVM dietary supplements and plans to update other MVMs (adult, prenatal), after modifying the definition of products to harmonize with DSLD and other prominent researchers.
• DSID staff continued work on measuring dissolution and disintegration of various dosage forms of dietary supplements (tablets, caplets, gummies, hard- and soft-shell capsules).
• DSID initiated research on the analytical content and dosage form performance of dietary supplement products (calcium and cranberry) with and without FDA-authorized health claims on their labels.
• DSID staff collaborated with expert laboratories and other USDA researchers to evaluate several testing methods for proanthocyanidin content claims on cranberry dietary supplement.
• ODS and USDA DSID staff collaborated in planning a special USDA database that would include dietary supplements and foods and beverages containing caffeine to improve estimates of exposure to caffeine in research studies.
• DSID staff organized a session on dietary supplements at the 2022 National Nutrient Databank Conference.
• DSID staff presented abstracts and oral presentations at the Nutrition 2022 Conference.

• To maintain a database of all federally funded dietary supplement research.
• To ensure that data collected for the database are easily accessible.
• To increase the use of the CARDS database.

• FY202 dietary supplement-related projects were reviewed, coded, and published in the CARDS database.
• New for FY2022 and for future years, FDA, and Veterans Administration projects are being coded and added to CARDS

• To coordinate NIH ICOs with strategic priorities related to, or funds dedicated to, resilience programs.
• To coordinate a Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group for the purpose of fostering collaboration between ICOs around resilience research.
• To coordinate the collection and harmonization of data on commonalities related to resilience outcomes, phenotype patterns, and measurements of resilience.
• To facilitate the development of research tools to enhance the advancement of resilience research.
• To facilitate the development of common language, experimental design protocols, and frameworks for identifying and measuring resilience outcomes.
• To facilitate the linkage of longitudinal data on healthy individuals to clinical trial data to provide a broader range of baseline characteristics and long-term outcomes that might explain factors related to resilience.

• ODS leads regular, monthly meetings of the Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group, which has resulted in a quarterly seminar series.
• ODS co-authored and edited a Resilience Research Special Issue journal publication showcasing how the Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group resilience definition and study design tool are reflected in NIH resilience research.
• ODS established the Resilience Research SIGs to expand on coordination of resilience researchers across NIH.
• ODS resilience and health studies program staff co-authored an article titled “Physiological Need for Calcium, Iron and Folic Acid for Women of Various Subpopulations During Pregnancy and Beyond” for a special issue of the Journal on Women’s Health.
• ODS staff presented “Activities of the Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group” at an NIH Nutrition Coordinating Committee, co-presented “Resilience and Health Restoration” at the NCCIH retreat, and presented at the Trans-NIH COVID-19 Mental Health Working Group meeting.

GOAL 4: Translate dietary supplement research findings into useful information for consumers, health professionals, researchers, and policymakers.

• To disseminate research results and educate the public to foster an enhanced quality of life and health for the U.S. population.
• To provide and promote the use of the most current, accurate, and useful information about dietary supplements to our audiences.
• To support ODS scientific staff and programs.
• To monitor the communications-related technology environment for most recent advances and evaluate their usefulness for ODS.

• Professional and Community Outreach
  • ODS staff’s many presentations in 2022 included presentations at national/international conferences and engagement with academic audiences, healthcare providers, and community groups, including a presentation titled “Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know” to 3 groups: Well Connected, a virtual community for older adults; MoCo (Montgomery County, MD), Scientists for Kids; and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
  • ODS staff wrote a column about the ODS DSLD that was published in April in Natural Products Insider.
  • ODS staff had 22 scientific articles published in 2022.
• ODS established two playlists on the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) YouTube Channel.
  • The ODS General Playlist will include selected presentations by ODS staff and invited experts on topics relevant to ODS program areas.
  • The ODS Seminar Series Playlist will include selected archived presentations from previous invited OD Seminar speakers.
• ODS Website: ODS staff work with developers to consistently update website functionality, navigation, and design. Highlights include:
  • The website design was significantly updated to align with current web design practices, including responsive design and a more prominent use of images. The navigation menus were evaluated and changed to better reflect the office’s resources and offerings.
  • The content management system and database behind the scenes were modernized and standardized.
  • New webpages were developed for the ODS Seminar Series, CARBON Plants Research Database, ODS Strategic Plan Archive, and the DSRCC. 
• ODS Website Statistics
  • The ODS website averaged approximately 1.26 million visits per month in 2022.
  • The dietary supplement fact sheets were the most frequently visited pages. The Vitamin D Fact Sheet for Health professionals was at the top of the list with almost 800,000 views in 2022.
• Meeting Planning and Promotion: ODS coordinated/planned and hosted meetings throughout 2022 including the Mary Frances Picciano Dietary Supplement Research Practicum, NIH Botanical Research Expert Panel, NIH CARBON Program Annual Meeting, 7 ODS seminars, 2 Trans-NIH Resilience Working Group seminars, 2 meetings of the FWGoDS, and the inaugural meeting of the DSRCC.
• Public Inquiries: ODS responded to 452 public inquiries in 2022, mostly by email, but also by phone and letter. More than 40 percent of the inquiries pertained to vitamins and minerals.
• Media Coverage and Inquiries
  • ODS expertise and educational resources were mentioned daily in national, regional, and specialty media throughout the year. ODS received a variety of media requests for which our experts were interviewed, including:
    • WebMD: Dietary supplement tips.
    • National Geographic: Immune-boosting dietary supplements.
    • Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Podcast: Children and dietary supplements.
    • Newsweek: Magnesium.
    • Woman’s World: Magnesium.
  • Some media requests required information only:
    • HBW Insight: ODS provided the public comments on ODS Strategic Plan draft.
    • OPTUM: ODS provided information about collagen supplements.
    • Leadstories.com: ODS provided information for fact-checking requests on these topics and others: omega-3s, vitamin B12, and oregano oil.
• ODS Email Subscription List and E-Newsletters: Since March 2021 when ODS began to leverage the govDelivery subscription service as one of ODS’s approaches to information dissemination, ODS’s subscriber audience increased from about 6,000 to more than 90,000 individual subscribers.
  • During this same time, the ODS Update newsletter subscriptions increased from 5,100 to more than 34,500 subscribers and The Scoop subscriptions from 5,000 to more than 66,700 subscribers.
  • In 2022, 2 Special Supplement announcements, 4 issues of the ODS Update, and 2 issues of The Scoop were sent to ODS subscribers.
  • In 2022, Just the Facts bulletins were sent to subscribers to report the latest evidence-based research on calcium, tips for evaluating health information on the Internet, and a reminder that ODS fact sheets are available in print-friendly versions.
• Social Media
  • ODS has approximately 10,300 Facebook and 16,400 Twitter followers. Each weekday ODS posts messages on these accounts leading followers to ODS and other government resources. ODS posts once a week in Spanish on both platforms.
  • ODS launched its LinkedIn account in August 2022 and posts content 3 times each week. As of December, it has made 242 connections (followers).
• Informational resources: ODS develops and maintains informational resources on dietary supplements available to the public on the ODS website.
  • The following new or updated fact sheets for health professionals and consumers were developed in 2022:
    • Multivitamin/mineral Supplements: Consumer in English and Spanish (version 2).
    • Vitamin A and Carotenoids: Health professional (version 2); Consumer in English and Spanish (version 2).
    • Zinc: Health professional (version 2); Consumer in English and Spanish (version 2)
  • The following fact sheets were revised with new and/or updated information in 2022:
    • Calcium: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Choline: Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Copper: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • COVID-19: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Dietary Supplements for Weight Loss: Health professional.
    • Fluoride: Health professional.
    • Folate: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Iodine: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Iron: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Magnesium: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.Niacin: Health professional.
    • Omega-3: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Potassium: Health professional.
    • Probiotics: Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Riboflavin: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Selenium: Health professional.
    • Vitamin A: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Vitamin B12: Health professional.
    • Vitamin D: Health professional; Consumer in English and Spanish.
    • Zinc: Health professional; Consumer in Spanish.
• Internal Communications
  • ODS played a key role in keeping the NIH Office of the Director, DPCPSI, and ODS staff up to date on its activities and relevant issues. The communications team produced News o’ the Day, a daily ODS internal e-mail, to help staff stay current on news on dietary supplements, nutrition, and related topics collected from such sources as peer-reviewed journals, government documents, newspaper articles, and blog posts. ODS also contributed to the DPCPSI Spotlight, a quarterly newsletter produced by and sent to DPCPSI staff.
  • The ODS communications team participated in broader NIH-wide communications and nutrition groups including the NIH Communications Directors, NIH Press Officers, NIH Social Media Collaboration Team, NIH Consumer Health Content Community of Practice, NIH Spanish Health Information Community of Practice, DPCPSI Communications Community, and the Nutrition Education Subcommittee of the Nutrition Research Coordinating Committee.