Sedative, hypnotic, and antianxiety medication use in an aging cohort overten years: A racial comparison

OBJECTIVES: Prescriptions of sedatives, hypnotics, and antianxiety medicati ons have decreased over the past 15 years. However, racial differences have not been well investigated in controlled analyses. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors analyzed data from a community-based , biracial cohort of older adults (n = 4000 at baseline) followed for 10 ye ars to determine sociodemographic and health characteristics associated wit h the use of these medications between 1986 and 1996. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Information about sedative, hypnotic, and antianxiet y medication use and demographic and health characteristics was obtained fr om a race-stratified, probability-based sample of black and white community -dwelling older adults in the Piedmont region of North Carolina during four in-person interviews spanning 10 years. Descriptive statistics were calcul ated. Logistic regression was used for the final models. RESULTS: A total of 13.3% of the subjects were taking these medications in 1986, with the frequency of use declining only to 11.8% in 1996 despite the cohort aging 10 years. Correlates of use at baseline were female gender, w hite race, depressive symptoms, poor self-rated health, impaired physical f unction, and health services use. These correlates persisted for each of th e three follow-up waves of the survey. In 1996, the odds for being white an d using these medications was 4.70 in controlled analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the overall decline in the use of sedative, hypnotics, and antianxiety agents in the general population in recent years, over the 10 years of this survey, an aging cohort continued to use these medication s at a frequency greater than the general population and did not demonstrat e a significant decline in use. Factors unrelated to health status, specifi cally being white, were among the strongest correlates of use throughout th e years of follow-up.