Have you taken a prescription drug during the past month?

by Clive Riddle, September 3, 2010

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics has just released a Data Brief: Prescription Drug Use Continues to Increase: U.S. Prescription Drug Data for 2007-2008  [Gu Q, Dillon CF, Burt VL. Prescription drug use continues to increase: U.S. prescription drug data for 2007-2008. NCHS data brief, no 42. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2010.]

Here’s a laundry list of what you can glean from the eight page report on U.S. prescription drug use:

• 48% had taken a prescription drug(s) during the past month, up from 44% ten years prior
• 31% had taken two or more prescriptions during the past month, compared to 25% ten years prior
• 11% had taken three or more prescriptions during the past month, compared to 6% ten years prior.
• 52.8% of those with health insurance had taken a prescription drug during the past month, compared to 28.5% without health insurance
• Among children (under age 12), less than 10% used two or more prescription drugs in the past month and only 1% used five or more.
• Among older Americans (aged 60 and over), more than 76% used two or more prescription drugs and 37% used five or more.
• The prescription drugs used most of for children aged 0-1 were Bronchodilators for Asthma (5.7% used)
• The prescription drugs used most of for adolescents aged 12-19 were CNS stimulants for ADD (6.1% used)
• The prescription drugs used most of for adults aged 20-59 were Antidepressants (10.8% used)
• The prescription drugs used most of for adults aged 60+were Cholesterol lowering drugs (44.9% used)
• Total U.S. spending for prescription drugs was $234.1 billion in 2008, more than double what was spent in 1999

The report is based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which examines a range of other aspects of national health and nutrition components as well, designed to monitor the health and nutritional status of the civilian noninstitutionalized U.S. population using a nationally representative survey population.