Thank you for supporting our longevity supplement survey: here are a few important insights we’d like to share.

The response was fantastic: we have some great longevity supplements user data which we will include in our February report; in the meantime, we wanted to share some interesting data points.

This launch digital report from our Longevity Market Intelligence Unit will address the exciting longevity supplements market which has significant growth potential and few barriers to entry. The 80-page report will address market growth factors, safety and efficacy, key ingredients, target hallmarks (of aging), and will profile 10 leading companies in this field.

Longevity.Technology: These are just five early insights from our data analysis – it’s very interesting to see what concerns you, what evidence you want, and how you track your progress.

Since the 1940s, supplements have become an affordable and tangible way for individuals to feel they are taking control of their health and enhancing their nutrition. For some, supplements are a rigorous part of daily routines, but for others that Vitamin D bottle continues to sit at the back of the medicine shelf gathering dust.

This is not surprising, as the huge number of supplements now widely available becomes increasingly confusing to the consumer. With each of the shelves in the local health store stocked with a multitude of supplements each promising you “intense fat stripping”, “ageless sleep” and “uber energy” how do you know which works and whether they will have any benefit to you personally?

Longevity supplements: Cognition

When our readership was asked what their top concern is in relation to aging, impact on cognitive skills, the brain, and the nervous system came out on top. 87% expressed some level of concern and a whopping 35% were extremely concerned. Longevity supplements marketed for brain health could have one of the largest target markets.

Longevity supplements: Efficacy

Nearly half of those surveyed said that ‘proof of efficacy on an aging outcome in human trials’ was an extremely important factor in considering which longevity supplement to buy, suggesting that evidence of clinical trial data is an important marketing strategy to consider for companies in the longevity supplement field.

Longevity supplements: Effective, safe, pure

The three biggest consumer concerns for longevity supplements were their effectiveness, safety, and purity. Companies with clear data to prove the efficacy, safety, and purity of its products are likely to gain a larger proportion of the market by enhancing consumer confidence in the product. This data also suggests that consumers remain sceptical about the effectiveness of longevity supplements, with 94% expressing some level of concern (we’ll address this more in the Supplements report).

Longevity supplements: App-supported tracking

Younger generations were the keenest to have a platform/app to track if the supplement is working, with 75% expressing they believe having a platform/app to track efficacy is important. Companies that offer testing and apps alongside its longevity supplements may be able to expand target markets to capture younger generations.

Longevity supplements: The over-sixties

Over half of our current readership (60%) are currently taking supplements to prevent aging and age-related diseases but over 35% are not. As our readership is a community with a keen interest in longevity, perhaps overall consumer scepticism is prevailing in these cases, and it suggests their remains a subset of the longevity supplements target market still to be convinced.

“Longevity supplements” have specifically been designed and are marketed to enhance healthspan and extend life years through targeting the nine hallmarks of aging. A growing body of evidence from scientific literature reviews and pre-clinical trials has demonstrated that specific ingredients can indeed enhance lifespan and decrease morbidity in model organisms, and supplements targeted at age-related pathologies is one of the most rapidly developing fields in modern biogerontology [1].

At Longevity.Technology believe there are a multitude of benefits that could arise from longevity supplementing, but these will only occur if the consumer is confident in the supplement they are taking, if they know why they are taking it, and if it’s easy to see that they are making progress.

By conducting this survey, we hope to provide companies with insight into consumer concerns and needs and provide new approaches that the market can conduct to improve confidence in longevity supplements. Find the full results from our survey in our ‘Longevity supplements‘ report, to be released at the end of February 2021.

[1] http://europepmc.org/article/PMC/5520340