QuickStats: Percentage* of Adults Who Were Prescribed Medication by a Doctor or Other Health Care Professional During the Past 12 Months,§ by Poverty Status — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2014**

Article Metrics
Altmetric:
Related Materials
The figure above is a bar chart showing that in 2014, the percentage of adults who were prescribed medication by a doctor or other health care professional during the past 12 months increased as income increased. Among adults aged ≥18 years, 57% of those with family incomes <100% of the federal poverty threshold were prescribed medication in the past 12 months, compared with 60.7% of those with incomes 100%–200% of the federal poverty threshold and 63.5% of those with incomes ≥200% of the federal poverty threshold.

* Percentages shown with 95% confidence intervals as error bars.

Aged ≥18 years.

§ Based on the response of “yes” to the survey question, “During the past 12 months, were you prescribed medication by a doctor or other health professional?”

Poverty status is based on family income and family size using the annually updated U.S. Census Bureau poverty thresholds. Family income was imputed when missing.

** Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population and are derived from the National Health Interview Survey sample adult component.

In 2014, the percentage of adults who were prescribed medication by a doctor or other health care professional during the past 12 months increased as income increased. Among adults aged ≥18 years, 57% of those with family incomes <100% of the federal poverty threshold were prescribed medication in the past 12 months, compared with 60.7% of those with incomes 100%–200% of the federal poverty threshold and 63.5% of those with incomes ≥200% of the federal poverty threshold.

Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2014 data (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm).

Reported by: Lindsey I. Black, MPH, lblack1@cdc.gov, 301-458-4548; Patricia Barnes, MA.


Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Who Were Prescribed Medication by a Doctor or Other Health Care Professional During the Past 12 Months, by Poverty Status — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2016;65:165. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6506a6external icon.

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.

View Page In:pdf icon
Page last reviewed: August 25, 2017