Cost-related Medication Non-adherence Among US Adults: Unveiling Insights from NCHS Data Brief
A new data brief from the NCHS examined the characteristics of US adults who did not take medication as prescribed to reduce costs. A breakdown of the results, here.
Rising out-of-pocket costs on prescription medications may limit patients' access to medications and lead them to not take them as prescribed by their clinician to save money. A new data brief from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) shows that in 2021, 8.2% of US adults who took prescription medication in the past 12 months reported not taking it as prescribed in order to reduce costs. Authors of the NCHS brief used data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey to examine the characteristics of adults aged 18–64 years who took prescription medication in the past 12 months and did not take medication as prescribed due to cost. Cost-saving measures included skipping doses, taking less medication than was prescribed, or delaying filling a prescription.
A breakdown of the findings by age, sex, race, health status, family income, health insurance coverage, and more in the slides below.
Women (9.1%) were more likely than men (7.0%) to not take medication as prescribed to reduce costs. The percentage of adults who did not take medication as prescribed to reduce costs was similar by age group.
Non-Hispanic other or multiple race adults (11.5%) were the most likely to not take medications as prescribed, followed by non-Hispanic Black adults (10.4%), Hispanic (9.7%) adults, White (7.4%) adults, and non-Hispanic Asian (6.8%) adults.
Among adults who took prescription medication in the past 12 months, those with disabilities (20.0%) were nearly 3-times more likely than those without disabilities (7.1%) to not take medication as prescribed due to cost. Adults in fair or poor health (18.0%) were nearly 3-times more likely than those in excellent, very good, or good health (6.3%) to not take medication as prescribed.
Among adults taking prescription drugs at any time in the past 12 months, the percentage of adults who did not take medications as prescribed to reduce costs decreased as family income as a percentage of the FPL increased.
Uninsured adults (22.9%) were the most likely to not take medications as prescribed, followed by adults with other health coverage (11.4%), Medicaid (8.0%), and those with private health insurance (6.5%).
Among adults taking prescription medication in the past 12 months, 18.1% of those with no prescription drug coverage did not take medications as prescribed to reduce costs, compared with 6.6% of those with private prescription drug coverage and 7.6% of those with prescription drug coverage through public programs.
