Prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics associated with benzodiazepines use among community dwelling older adults: the Bambuí Health and Aging Study (BHAS)

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics associated with benzodiazepine use among community-dwelling older adults.

Method: 1606 subjects, aged > 60 years, corresponding to 92% of the residents of Bambuí city, participated in this study. The information about medication use was obtained by means of a standard interview and the review of medication packaging. Substances were classified using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Index.

Results: The prevalence of benzodiazepine current use was 21.7% (26.7% among females and 14.0% among males). From these, 68.7% had been taking the medication for over one year, 31.3% for over five years and 53.2% were using long half-life benzodiazepines. The medication most frequently used was bromazepam (35.6%), followed by diazepam (22.5%), clonazepam (12.6%) and lorazepam (7.8%). After adjustment for confounders, female gender (RP = 1.93; CI95% = 1.51-2.46) was the only sociodemographic characteristic found to be independently associated with substance consumption.

Conclusions: The prevalence of benzodiazepine use in the study population was high, but within the variation observed in developed countries. Chronic use of benzodiazepines and long half-life medications predominated.