Multivitamins

PSI has completed assessments of vitamin markets in all regions of the world, with consistent findings: Although shelves are crowded with vitamin products, closer inspection reveals them to be high-priced, exclusively high-end, with formulations typically containing so little iron and other vitamins that they are useless in addressing micronutrient deficiencies. Most are not packaged attractively nor promoted actively, nor is any effort made to educate low-income groups. In every country PSI has conducted market research, there is a clear unfilled niche for a multivitamin supplement affordable to low income people.

PSI and its Bolivian affiliate PROSALUD launched the world's first multivitamin supplement (called VitalDía) social marketing project in Bolivia in 1999 in a project made possible by the Academy for Educational Development's LINKAGES project and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Bolivia project is a good example of how PSI multivitamin projects work. VitalDía was made widely available, not only through pharmacies - where a distribution survey confirmed that VitalDía was available in 90% of urban pharmacies as well as 58% of rural pharmacies - but also in markets and at PROSALUD clinics. The communications strategy included 900 broadcasts of a television advertisement and 10,000 broadcasts of radio spots and dramas.

A knowledge, attitudes, and practices behavior study conducted one year after introduction found that social marketing clearly succeeded in reaching low-income women, including those in the very lowest income strata. Among women with the lowest income, those with less than four years of education, awareness of vitamins increased by 25%, from 53% to 78%, ever-use of vitamins increased by 13%, from 43% to by 54%, and ever-use of multivitamins increased by 12%, from less than 1% to 12%. These are highly positive results after only one year of intervention.

PSI is on the cutting edge of the global effort to address this serious problem. In 2000, VitalDía was also launched in neighboring Paraguay, where demand for the product has been so high that production has had to be increased.

PSI has since introduced multivitamin social marketing programs in Togo, Pakistan, Venezuela, Zambia and India. In India the multivitamin product was launched in late 2002 with assistance from a USAID child survival grant.

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PSI markets VitalDía multivitamins in Bolivia and Paraguay.