Utilização de benzodiazepínicos na cidade de Pelotas-RS e no Brasil

Abstract

The aim of this study was, initially, to evaluate the benzodiazepines (BZD) utilization in the adult population of the urban area of the city of Pelotas, through a cross-sectional study. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fieldwork was interrupted. The available interviews were analyzed and are presented in this volume, as “relatório”. The research question of the original project was adapted to produce an original article, based on data from the National Survey on Access, Use, and Promotion of the Rational Use of Medicines in Brazil (PNAUM), a population-based cross-sectional study, conducted between 2013 and 2014. The PNAUM sample is representative from the Brazilian population, but in the article we analyzed a sample of individuals aged 60 years or older (N = 9019). The outcome was the BZD utilization in the last 15 days. The association between independent predictors was analyzed using multivariate Poisson regression. The prevalence of BZD utilization among the elderly was 9.3% (95% CI: 8.3-10.4), which corresponds, in absolute terms, to a total of more than two million elderly people in Brazil. After adjusted analysis, the following variables were associated with greater use of BZD: female gender (PR = 1.88; 95% CI: 1.52-2.32), depression (PR = 5.31; 95% CI: 4.41-6.38), multimorbidity (PR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.20-1.73), emergency visit or hospitalization in the last 12 months (PR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.18-1.70), polypharmacy (PR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.01-1.57) and lower selfrated health (PR = 4.16; 95% CI: 2.10-8.22). The risk of utilization was lower in the North region of the country (PR = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.13-0.27) and among who reported alcohol abuse in the last month (PR = 0.42; 95% CI: 0, 19-0.94). Despite the recommendations against utilization, the results showed a high prevalence of BZD utilization in the elderly, particularly in the depressed ones, in addition to wide regional and gender differences.