An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Percentage* of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Took Prescription Medication During the Past 12 Months,† by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2021§
Weekly / April 21, 2023 / 72(16);450
* With 95% CIs indicated by error bars.
† Based on a positive response to the question, “At any time in the past 12 months, did you take prescription medication?”
§ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
In 2021, 64.8% of adults aged ≥18 years took prescription medication at any time during the past 12 months. The percentage of adults taking prescription medication was lower among men than women overall (58.4% versus 70.9%) and for those aged 18–44 years (38.9% versus 57.8%) and 45–64 years (67.1% versus 75.7%). Among adults aged ≥65 years, men (89.0%) and women (89.3%) were equally likely to take prescription medication. Prescription medication use increased with age, from 48.4% for those aged 18–44 years to 89.2% for those aged ≥65 years, and this pattern of increasing use with age was observed for both men and women.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics; National Health Interview Survey, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm
Reported by: Robin A. Cohen, PhD, rzc6@cdc.gov; Laryssa Mykyta, PhD.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Took Prescription Medication During the Past 12 Months, by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:450. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7216a7.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.