[Education and use of drugs in Norway]

Many studies have demonstrated that a low socioeconomic status is associated with poor health. The aim of the study was to investigate whether use of prescription drugs, generally and within selected categories, varies with education.

Data on education from the 2001 Population and Housing Census for 645,023 men and women born in the period 1960-1969 and living in Norway in 2001 were linked to data from the Norwegian Prescription Database on drugs dispensed in the period 2004-2009. The overall frequency of drug dispensing was compared with six levels of education. The relative risk associated with limited education (≤ 10 years) compared with long education (> 10 years) of having at least one drug dispensed during the period was calculated for 42 selected drug categories.

There was a dose-response relationship between education and the number of drug prescriptions dispensed. Subjects with lower secondary education collected prescription drugs about three times as often on average as subjects with researcher education. The average relative risk of drug dispensing for subjects with short education (≤ 10 years) compared with long (>10 years) for the 42 selected drug categories was 1.29 for men and 1.31 for women.

Given that dispensing of drugs is an expression of state of health, our findings support earlier studies that have shown that there is social inequality in the health of the adult population.