The Association Between Number of Chronic Conditions and Benzodiazepine Prescribing in Region Stockholm, Sweden: A Total Population‐Based Cohort Study
Caroline Kappelin, Caroline Wachtler, Gunnar Ljunggren, Axel C. CarlssonABSTRACT
Background and Aims
The aim of this study was to examine the association between an increasing number of chronic conditions and prescribing of benzodiazepines.
Methods
Conditional logistic regression was used to study the association between the number of chronic conditions accumulated during a 4‐year period and risk of having ≥ 2 collected prescriptions of benzodiazepines during the 2 following years in two cohorts before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data were collected from the VAL databases for the total adult population in Stockholm, Sweden between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2019, and January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2021.
Results
Of the total population with approximately 1.3 million individuals in each cohort, 3.8% of the women and 2.2% of the men had ≥ 2 collected prescriptions of benzodiazepines before the COVID‐19 pandemic. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, 3.1% of the women and 1.8% of the men had ≥ 2 collected prescriptions of benzodiazepines. The risk of having ≥ 2 collected prescriptions of benzodiazepines significantly increased in individuals with two chronic conditions, compared to the reference group, OR 3.25 (3.25–3.25) for women, and OR 3.57 (CI 3.57–3.58) for men before COVID‐19. The risk increased with an increasing number of chronic conditions, OR 11.41 (CI 11.40–11.42) for women and OR 13.26 (CI 13.25–13.28) for men with 5–9 conditions before COVID‐19. Results were similar during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The association regarded both ongoing and new prescriptions.
Conclusion
In this study, individuals with an increasing number of chronic conditions were more likely to receive both ongoing and newly initiated benzodiazepine prescriptions. While the appropriateness of prescribing was not assessed in this study, these findings can inform healthcare providers and policymakers about the need for strategies to reduce such prescribing in this population.