Half of Americans use prescription drugs - survey

About half of all U.S. women and 40 percent of U.S. men are currently using or have recently used a prescription drug, according to government statistics published on Thursday.

This “snapshot” of information was based on a survey that found that 54 percent of white non-Hispanic women and 43 percent of white non-Hispanic men had used a prescription drug in the past month, the National Center for Health Statistics said in a statement.

Fewer blacks and Hispanics used prescription drugs, according to the survey, done between 1999 and 2002.

Nearly 44 percent of black women and 35 percent of black men reported using prescription drugs and nearly 38 percent of Mexican-American women and nearly 26 percent of Mexican-American men, the survey found.

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