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Gender and use of hypnotics or sedatives in old age: a nationwide register-based study

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Abstract

Objective To investigate whether gender is associated with use of hypnotics or sedatives and with different types of hypnotics or sedatives in older people after adjustment for age, socioeconomic status (i.e., education) and co-morbidity (i.e., number of other drugs). Setting Sweden Method We conducted a register-based analysis of data on gender, age, dispensed drugs, and education from people aged 75-89 years registered in the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register between July and October 2005 (n = 645,429). Main outcome measure The hypnotic or sedative drug classes were benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine related drugs (i.e., Z-drugs) and other types of hypnotics or sedatives. The individual hypnotics or sedatives were nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, triazolam, zopiclone, zolpidem, clomethiazole and propiomazine. Results In the total study population, 27.1% of the women and 18.1% of the men were dispensed at least one hypnotic or sedative drug. The logistic regression analyses of those who used hypnotics or sedatives (n = 151,700) revealed that women were more likely than men to use benzodiazepines (adjusted OR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.07–1.14) and benzodiazepine related drugs (adjusted OR = 1.14; 95% CI 1.12–1.17), whereas men were more likely to use other types of hypnotics or sedatives (adjusted OR = 0.69; 95% CI 0.67–0.71). Among the individual hypnotics or sedatives, the strongest associations with gender was found for nitrazepam (adjusted OR = 1.19; 95% CI 1.14–1.25 for women compared with men), zolpidem (adjusted OR = 1.18; 95% CI 1.16–1.21), clomethiazole (adjusted OR = 0.48; 95% CI 0.46–0.51) and propiomazine (adjusted OR = 0.77; 95% CI 0.75–0.79). Conclusion Use of hypnotics or sedatives in old age seems to be related to female gender. Also, among elderly users of hypnotics or sedatives, women appear to be more likely to use benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine related drugs than men. The explanation to these gender differences merits further investigation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Gunilla Ringbäck Weitoft for help with processing of the data material.

Funding

This study was supported financially by grants from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the Swedish Research Council and Wolff’s Foundation at Karolinska Institutet.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Gävlegatan 16, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden

    Kristina Johnell & Johan Fastbom

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  1. Kristina Johnell
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  2. Johan Fastbom
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Correspondence to Kristina Johnell.

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Johnell, K., Fastbom, J. Gender and use of hypnotics or sedatives in old age: a nationwide register-based study. Int J Clin Pharm 33, 788–793 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-011-9536-8

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