Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13074

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Bright B.
Many Americans Recognize Risks Of Prescription Drugs, Polls Finds
The Wall Street Journal 2008 Mar 3
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120421481516300105.html

Full text:

Most Americans are concerned about potentially harmful interactions between pain medications and other prescription medications, a new WSJ.com/Harris poll shows, but many don’t follow safety precautions.

The Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive health-care poll conducted Feb. 19- 21 found that more than half U.S. adults surveyed believe the abuse of prescription medications is as great a problem as abuse of illegal drugs, while 22% think illegal drug abuse is a bigger problem and 18% think prescription-drug abuses is a bigger problem.

Media reports that actor Heath Ledger’s death might be linked to an overdose of prescription medications helped draw attention in recent weeks to the issue of prescription-drug abuse and the dangers of harmful drug interactions. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that nearly 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs, up 80% since 2000. And nearly one in 10 high-school seniors admit to abusing such powerful prescription pain killers, according to the DEA.

But a large percentage of adults surveyed still haven’t put in place the safeguards that might help avoid potential problems, the poll indicates.

When getting a new prescription, 59% said they always or often check for information about potential risks associated with the medication, compared with 25% who do so sometimes, and 17% who said they rarely or never check for risks. About half said they always or often talk to their doctor about other prescription drugs they are taking and 25% talk with their pharmacist. But more than a quarter said they never talk to their doctor about other prescriptions and more than half said they don’t talk to their pharmacist.

And while nearly half of respondents said they always or often keep their prescription medications where others cannot access them, 24% said they never keep them safeguarded and another third said they do so only sometimes or rarely.

At the same time, nearly a third admit to having shared their prescription medications with family members at some point or taking higher doses of medications than prescribed by their doctor, although most say they have done these activities only sometimes or rarely.

See full results of the poll:

“Based on what you know or have heard, which do you think poses a bigger problem in the U.S. – people abusing prescription medications or illegal drugs?”

Methodology
Harris Interactiveconducted this online survey within the U.S. on Feb. 19- 21, 2008 among a national cross section of 2,027 adults. Figures for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, income and region were weighted where necessary to align with population proportions. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.