That’s the matter of an attention-grabbing paper by Ho (2023).

Prescription drug use has reached historic highs in the USA—a pattern linked to will increase in medicalization, institutional components regarding the well being care and pharmaceutical industries, and inhabitants growing old and rising burdens of persistent illness. Regardless of the excessive and rising prevalence of use, no estimates exist of the overall variety of years People can anticipate to spend taking pharmaceuticals over their lifetimes. This examine offers the primary estimates of life course patterns of prescription drug use utilizing knowledge from the 1996–2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, the Human Mortality Database, and the Nationwide Heart for Well being Statistics. Newborns in 2019 might be anticipated to take pharmaceuticals for roughly half their lives: 47.54 years for ladies and 36.84 years for males. The variety of years people can anticipate to take 5 or extra medication elevated considerably. People additionally skilled notably dramatic will increase in years spent taking statins, antihypertensives, and antidepressants. There are additionally vital variations in prescription drug use by race and ethnicity: non-Hispanic Whites take essentially the most, Hispanics take the least, and non-Hispanic Blacks fall in between these extremes. People are taking medication over a large and increasing swathe of the life course, a testomony to the centrality of pharmaceuticals in People’ lives right now.

Hat tip to Kevin Lewis.