As the saying goes, with age comes wisdom. As data for England from the NHS shows though, it also tends to come with an increase in the need for, or at least use of, prescription medicines. As this infographic illustrates, there is a steady increase up through the age groups in the number of prescribed medicines that people take. For the 16-24 bracket, 19 percent were taking at least one medicine that had been prescribed to them. For those aged 85 and older, this rises to 96 percent, with 56 percent taking at least five medicines.
With age comes wisdom (and prescriptions)
Health in the UK
Description
This chart shows the share that have taken prescribed medicines in the last week in England, by amount and age group.
