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In the United States, younger generations are expected to spend more time taking prescription drugs than working or staying married. A surprising observation made by an American researcher, who even reveals that her counterparts will spend half their lives, on average, consuming this type of pharmaceutical product.
“As an American, I would like to know what medications I am putting in my body and how long I can expect to take them“, explains Jessica Ho, professor of sociology and demography at Pennsylvania State University, in a statement. Before specifying: “The number of years people can expect to spend taking prescription drugs is now greater than the number of years they could spend getting married, in education or in the population active. It is important to recognize the central role that prescription drug use has taken in our lives“.
To reach these conclusions, the researcher analyzed data from several nationally representative surveys, notably conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1996 and 2009 , based on prescription drug consumption in the United States. Information from more than 15,000 households per year, with data collections every five months, which the scientist coupled with mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Human Mortality Database.
47.5 years spent taking medication
Published in the journal Demography at the beginning of October, this work revealed that more and more men are taking prescription drugs from the age of 20, and that more than half of men are taking them by the age 40 years old. Women, for their part, take this type of medication earlier, and the majority take them from the age of 15. A difference that can be explained by taking hormonal contraceptives, but not only that, as the main author of this research points out.
“We find that women start taking prescription medications earlier than men, which is partly related to birth control and hormonal contraceptives. But this is also due to greater consumption of psychotherapeutic drugs and painkillers among women“, explains Jessica Ho. She explains that these pharmaceutical products are used in particular to treat disorders such as depression and anxiety. And adds: “If we consider the difference between men and women, the exclusion of contraceptives would only explain a third of the difference“.
Another lesson from this analysis is that a boy born in 2019 should spend on average around 37 years taking prescription drugs, or 48% of his life. A duration which increases to around 47.5 years for girls born in 2019, which corresponds to 60% of their life. “These findings have implications for the health of Americans and health care spending. Many of the medications that people have been taking for 40 or 50 years have only been on the market for five decades, so their long-term effects on the body are still unknown.“, alerts the researcher.
Higher spending in the United States?
The scientist was also interested in polypharmacy, namely the taking of several medications by the same person for multiple health problems. She estimates that the rate of polypharmacy has jumped in recent years. “In the mid-1990s, most people who took prescription drugs took only one medication. Today, people who take [ces] medications are just as likely to take five or more medications“. And to alert: “Polypharmacy increases the risk of drug interactions and adverse health effects“.
The Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) recently published a document indicating that each American inhabitant spent 926 current euros on prescription medicines, and 228 current euros on over-the-counter medicines, in 2020. According to this data from the OECD, Eurostat, and the International System of health accounts, the United States is among the countries studied where these per capita expenditures would be the highest, ahead of Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and Canada. In France, they would be set at a little over 400 current euros for the same year.
“This analysis does not attempt to say whether prescription drug use is good or bad. It is clear that they have made a difference in the treatment of many illnesses, but there are growing questions about what is excessive. Much research shows that Americans are less healthy and live shorter lives than their counterparts in other high-income countries. The issue of prescription drugs is an integral part of this reality. What we find is that, even beyond what we might expect, the utilization rates of [ces] drugs in the United States are extraordinarily high“, concludes the author of the study.