By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age borrows or shares prescription drugs, federal health officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta report.

"People assume that this has no risk, so I think that we need to be clearer in our health communications that there are risks involved in medication sharing," Dr. Margaret Honein of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, who helped conduct the study, told Reuters Health.

Risks include allergic reactions to drugs, interactions with other medications, antibiotic resistance, and, for pregnant women, exposing a fetus to a substance that could cause birth defects, the researchers point out in the Journal of Women's Health.

Honein and her team looked at data from the 2001-2006 HealthStyles surveys, which are conducted every year by mail to investigate "trends in health behavior." Their analysis included 26,566 people -- 7,456 of whom were women between 18 and 44 years old.

Prescription sharing or borrowing was reported by 28.8 percent of women and 26.5 percent of men. While 19.5 percent of women 45 and older said they had borrowed or shared prescription drugs, 36.5 percent of those 18 to 44 said they had done so. Pain killers and allergy medications were the medications reproductive-age women reported sharing most frequently.

The reasons most commonly cited for borrowing or sharing drugs were: "already have a prescription for that medication but ran out or don't have it with me" (71.8 percent); "have the same problem as the person who has the medicine" (49 percent); "got it from a family member" (44.2 percent); or "want something strong for pain or headache (39.2 percent).

Among people who said they had not shared or borrowed prescription drugs, 63.1 percent said they would never do so, while 24.1 percent said they would do so if they already had a prescription but had run out.

"I'm sure that all health care providers know that some medication sharing goes on, but they may not realize that it's this common," Honein said in an interview. This behavior is particularly concerning among reproductive-age women, she added, pointing out that half of US pregnancies are unplanned.

"During those first three months of pregnancy, it's a very critical time of organ development for the fetus," she said. "That's also a time when women may not realize that they're pregnant."

While a few drugs are known to cause birth defects, the risk of harm to a fetus from the great majority of drugs is unknown, Honein added. One study, she noted, found that, for 90 percent of drugs approved between 1980 and 2000, there was insufficient information to determine if these medications increased the risk of birth defects.

SOURCE: Journal of Women's Health.

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