Description/Abstract
Prescription medication misuse is a long-term population health problem in the United States. This data slice uses data from the National Wellbeing Survey (N=32,789, 2021–2025) of U.S. adults ages 18–64 to examine how the number of chronic health conditions a person has is related to their misuse of prescription opioids, tranquilizers, sedatives, or stimulants in the past 12 months. The authors find a dose-response pattern: misuse rises from 2.8% among those with no chronic conditions to 11.7% among those with three or more conditions. Mental health conditions show stronger associations with misuse than physical health conditions.
Document Type
Data Slice
Keywords
Prescription medication, prescription medication misuse, chronic health conditions, mental health
Disciplines
Mental and Social Health | Sociology | Substance Abuse and Addiction
Date
6-16-2026
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Oshaji, Esther and London, Andrew S., "Sicker Americans Are More Likely to Misuse Prescription Medications" (2026). Population Health Research Brief Series. 297.
https://surface.syr.edu/lerner/297
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
