Cost also drove 12% of survey respondents to purchase prescription medication outside the United States.
Although 97% of Americans who received a prescription for medication in the last 90 days filled it, the most-cited reason among respondents who did not fill their prescription was cost (67%), according to the Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll.
Additionally, 12% of all respondents said that cost drove them to purchase prescription medication outside the United States.
One-third (33%) of respondents who received a prescription for medication looked for the cost of the medication before filling the prescription; millennials do this most commonly (64% of millennial respondents), but the rate decreases with increasing age.
The reason mentioned most often by respondents who stopped taking their prescribed medication was side effects (29%), followed by thinking they no longer needed it (17%), feeling better (16%), thinking the medication was ineffective (15%), and cost (10%).
A quarter (25%) of all respondents who filled their prescription missed a dose of the medication.