About 60% of adults aged 18 and over reported taking at least one prescription medication in 2021, with 36% reporting taking three or more (1). Out-ofpocket costs on retail drugs rose 4.8% to $63 billion in 2021 (2). High costs may limit individuals' access to medications and lead to people not taking medication as prescribed (3,4); this may result in more serious illness and require additional treatment (5). This report examines the characteristics of adults aged 18-64 who took prescription medication in the past 12 months and did not take medication as prescribed due to cost. Cost-saving measures included skipping doses, taking less medication than prescribed, or delaying filling a prescription.
Access to health care coverage during pregnancy and delivery allows women to receive the care needed to maximize the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy and baby (1). National birth certificate data on the principal source of payment for the delivery became available in 2016, when all states implemented the 2003 U.S. Standard Certificate of Live Birth. This certificate provides information on payment through private insurance; Medicaid; CHAMPUS, TRICARE, and other types of government insurance; and self-pay, which has been shown to reflect the uninsured status of the mother at the time of delivery (2). This report describes the principal source of payment for the delivery in 2021 overall and by maternal race and Hispanic origin, age, and education.
In 2021, 33.8 million people in the United States were food insecure, that is, they did not have consistent, dependable access to sufficient quality or quantity of food (1,2). Food insecurity affects health outcomes (3), increasing the risk of high cholesterol, hypertension, chronic health conditions, and changes in functional limitations (4-6), and is a social determinant of health. This report explores selected sociodemographic characteristics of adults aged 18 and over living in families experiencing food insecurity.
Differences in work conditions such as job autonomy, job insecurity, and shift work may lead to health disparities in the population (1). Previous research has linked worse health outcomes to shift work (2-4), job insecurity (5), and other work conditions (6). This report uses 2021 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to examine differences in serious psychological distress in the past 30 days by work conditions, including shift work, monthly earnings variation, perceived job insecurity, and work schedule flexibility, for working adults aged 18-64 in the United States.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, suicide was the 10th highest cause of death overall and the 2nd highest cause for the 10-34 age group (1,2). Suicidal ideation is defined as thinking about, considering, or planning suicide; is predictive of suicide deaths; and may result in injury and hospitalization (3). An estimated 4.0% to 4.8% of adults aged 18 and over have suicidal ideation each year (4,5). The lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation in the United States is 15.6% (6). This report uses data from the 2016-2020 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to present the annual average emergency department (ED) visit rate per 10,000 people for patients with suicidal ideation.
In 2021, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, changing from the 10th leading cause in 2019 and the 12th leading cause in 2020 (1). As the second leading cause of death in people aged 10-34 and the fifth in people aged 35-54, suicide contributes to premature mortality (1). After peaking in 2018, rates declined through 2020 but then increased again in 2021, according to provisional data (2,3). This report updates previous data by presenting final suicide rates from 2001 through 2021 by sex and age as well as rates by race and Hispanic origin for 2020 and 2021.