Vitamin supplements could increase the risk of premature death, researchers warned.

They said healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay, may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent.

Researchers at Copenhagen University carried out a review of 67 studies on 230,000 healthy people and found no convincing evidence that any of the antioxidants helped to prolong life expectancy, but some increased mortality.

British Department of Health said people should try to get the vitamins they need by eating a balanced diet and advised care in taking large doses of supplements.

The Daily Telegraph quoted a spokesman as saying, ''There is a need to exercise caution in the use of high doses of purified supplements of vitamins, including antioxidant vitamins, and minerals. Their impact on long-term health may not have been fully established and they cannot be assumed to be without risk.'' The Danish research found that vitamin A supplements increased the risk of death in healthy people by 16 per cent. Taking beta-carotene was linked to a 7 per cent increased risk, while regular users of vitamin E supplements increased the risk of an early death by four per cent.

Goran Bjelakovic, who led the review, said, ''We could find no evidence to support taking antioxidant supplements to reduce the risk of dying earlier in healthy people or patients with various diseases.'' ''If anything, people in trial groups given the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E showed increased rates of mortality,'' he added.