Half of England on prescription drugs
pharmafile | December 11, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â England, HSCIC, NHS, doctors, prescribing, prescriptionsÂ
Almost half of the people in England are taking regular prescription medicines according to a new report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
50% of women and 43% of the men surveyed, self-reported that they had taken at least one prescribed drug in the last week. This proportion was higher among young women than young men but increased with age more sharply in men.
Additionally, 24% of women and 22% of men had taken at least three such treatments in the last week, a rate that increased with age.
Statins were among the most prescribed drugs, with 16% of men and 12% of women saying they took lipid-lowering medicines like Simvastatin – which was the single most used medicine in the survey with 40 million prescriptions. This follows concerns over NICE’s decisions to relax guidelines around statins.
Anti-hypertensive heart medicines were also widespread – with 14% of men and 15% of women reporting use of them – and over 30% of all drugs prescribed were for cardiovascular diseases.
Among women, pain relief drugs were particularly prevalent, with 12% having taken analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In fact aspirin was the second most commonly used medicine overall with 31 million people saying that they had taken it.
The study – the first of its kind to survey the general population, rather than just those within the healthcare system – also found that the proportion of participants who had taken at least one prescribed medicine jumped with declining income and increasing area deprivation.
Overweight and obese people, as well as people with limiting and longstanding illnesses, were also among the most prolific users of these drugs. Almost all of those surveyed who were over 65 and needed help with the activities of daily living were taking at least one prescribed medicine, and most of them were taking at least three.
However, the survey also found that there was a 3.8% fall in the number of antibiotic prescriptions between 2012 and 2013, as the government continues its efforts to drive down use of these drugs in the face of increasingly-resistant bacteria.
George Underwood
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