Supplementation

The WHI 2026 health survey asked urban working professionals covered by Loop: do you currently take any of these supplements? It lists eight products and a "none of these" option, and a respondent could choose more than one. 7,592 responses gave a valid answer, and 34.1% of them named at least one product. Vitamin D leads at 20.4% and Vitamin B12 follows at 15.0%.

Because several products could be named, the shares can overlap and do not add to 100%. An answer that named Vitamin D and B12 is counted in both rows.

Reported use means naming at least one of the eight listed supplements. The question does not measure dose, frequency, medical advice or follow-up testing; figures count responses, not unique people.

In a separate laboratory sample, 60.1% of Vitamin D reports and 69.6% of B12 reports sit below the report's cutoffs#

Loop's laboratory records cover both of the nutrients named most in the survey. Those records are a different sample from the survey, and low results in them are common.

The Vitamin D page records 60.1% of reports below 20 ng/mL. The US National Academies treats 20 ng/mL or above as adequate for most people. The 81.4% below 30 ng/mL uses a broader comparison cutoff, not a universal deficiency line. The Vitamin B12 page records 69.6% of reports below 300 pg/mL.

Survey responses and laboratory reports come from separate, unlinked samples. They cannot show whether those taking supplements are those with low test results.

Women report more supplement use in all four age groups: 42.6% against 30.3% overall#

Women's answers sit 12.3 percentage points above men's. Twenty-nine answers fall outside both rows: 20 chose prefer not to say, six recorded non-binary, and three left the question blank.

Women's reported use rises at every step, from 36.7% in their 20s to 71.1% in their 50s. Men's stays between 29.0% and 33.8% across all four decades. The two oldest cells are small, at 83 women and 145 men.

On Vitamin D alone the direction is the same: 28.5% of women's answers named it, against 16.8% of men's. In WHI 2025's own men-versus-women supplement table, women were above men on all three products it listed.

The top income band reports roughly twice the use of the ₹3–6 lakh band: 59.6% against 29.3%#

That is a spread of 30.3 points, the widest across these eight income groups. They cover 7,589 of the 7,592 answers, and three carry no income.

The climb between the two ends is not steady. The lowest band, under ₹3 lakh, sits above the two directly above it, 34.8% against 29.3% and 30.6%. Higher up, ₹15–25 lakh sits marginally above ₹25–40 lakh, 40.4% against 39.9%. WHI 2025 also placed the highest-paid band on top and the lowest band above the two directly above it. But its ₹25–40 lakh band had higher use than its ₹15–25 lakh band, the reverse of the 2026 result. The two editions used different definitions of supplement use, so their rates are not directly comparable.

On Vitamin D alone the two ends are 39.7% in the top band and 15.8% at ₹3–6 lakh.

Creatine falls with age, from 5.1% in the 20s to 0.9% in the 50s#

Across the same four decades, reported use of any product rises, from 32.8% of answers in the 20s to 47.2% in the 50s. Creatine falls at every step instead. Men's answers name it more than twice as often as women's, the reverse of the two sex comparisons above. It also has a well-established use in sport: the International Society of Sports Nutrition rates creatine monohydrate the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement available to athletes for increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training (Kreider et al., 2017). The question does not record why anyone named it, or any other product on the list.

Reported use runs from 42.4% in Delhi NCR to 29.4% in Chennai#

Across those seven cities the range is 13 percentage points. Smaller places are not on the list and several of them sit above Delhi NCR, Chandigarh highest of any city at 52.9% on 34 answers. Work location separates the answers less: 39.8% of 1,338 home-based answers named a product, against 36.2% of 1,610 hybrid and 31.8% of 4,642 office-based.

City means self-reported residence. The table shows the seven cities with at least 250 answers.