U.S. adults not taking medicine as prescribed by health status

In 2021, among U.S. adults with disabilities, twenty percent stated they do not take medication as prescribed due to cost reasons. That percentage was nearly three times higher than among without disabilities. Similarly, adults in fair or poor health were almost three times as likely as those in excellent, very good, or good health to not take medication as prescribed. This statistic depicts the percentage of adults in the United States not taking medication as prescribed to reduce costs in 2021, by disability and health status.

Percentage of U.S. adults not taking medication as prescribed to reduce costs in 2021, by disability and health status

Characteristic	Share of respondents
Without disabilities	7.1%
With disabilities	20%
Excellent, very good or good health	6.3%
Fair or poor health	18%

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Release date

June 2023

More information

Region

North America, United States

Survey time period

2021

Age group

18-64 years

Special properties

Computer-assisted personal interviewing might have also occurred

Method of interview

Face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews

Supplementary notes

Disability status: Classified by the level of difficulty reported in the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning. The six domains of functioning include: vision (even with glasses), hearing (even with hearing aids), mobility (walking or climbing stairs), communication (understanding or being understood by others), cognition (remembering or concentrating), and self-care (such as bathing or dressing). Adults who responded “a lot of difficulty” or “cannot do at all” to at least one of the six questions are deemed to have disabilities.

Adults who did not take medication as prescribed were categorized as those who reported taking prescription medications in the last 12 months to the study and responded “yes” to at least one of the following:

“During the last 12 months, were any of the following true for you:
1) Skipped medication doses to save money;
2) Took less medication to save money;
3) Delayed filling a prescription to save money.”

Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population.

NHIS is a cross-sectional household interview survey. The target population for the NHIS is the civilian noninstitutionalized population residing within the 50 states and the District of Columbia at the time of the interview.

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