By the year 2025, an estimated 18.1 percent of the population will be seniors. Expenditures on prescription-drug coverage is one of the fastest rising components of health care spending. Although seniors represent 15 percent of the population, they account for almost 40 percent of all prescriptions.
Seniors are more likely than younger people to be multiple-drug users.
Seniors reporting stress are more likely to report poor health and multiple drug use. Seniors without helpful family and friends are more likely to have stressful lives and to be multiple drug users. It is estimated that 6 to 10 percent of seniors have significant alcohol problems. The study found that 70 percent of US seniors who own a home computer surf the Web. The findings are based on a random telephone survey of 600 adults age 50 and over and the error margin is 4 percent.