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Working-age adults who manage more chronic health conditions are more likely to misuse prescription medications, researchers in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs found.

In a data slice published by the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health in June, researchers found misuse of prescription drugs rises from 2.8% among adults with no chronic conditions to 11.7% among those with three or more. That is more than a fourfold increase.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that 7.6 million Americans misused prescription opioids and 3.9 million misused stimulants in 2024.

"These are not small numbers; they represent millions of working-age adults whose health, relationships and livelihoods are at risk. Importantly, the consequences of this extend beyond just individuals, families and even the health care systems to the general society at large," says Esther Oshaji, the third-year sociology doctoral student who led the search for an association between chronic disease and misuse of prescription drugs alongside her adviser, Andrew London, Maxwell Dean Professor of Health and Aging and professor of sociology.

Oshaji says despite the acknowledged scope of the nationwide addiction crisis, little is known about who is at risk for misusing prescription drugs and why. Previous research linked chronic pain to higher rates of opioid misuse , but the broader question of overall disease burden and drug misuse hasn't been fully examined.

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