Good Practice for Outpatient Prescription of Zolpidem in Slovenia from 2008 to 2016
Keywords:
zolpidem, older people, medication prescription, gender, insomniaAbstract
The aim of this study was to analyse the outpatient prescription of widely used hypnotic zolpidem in Slovenia in the period from 2008 to 2016 by gender and age, to present the trends, and to analyse the prescription in Slovenian regions. Non-enzodiazepine sedative hypnotics were classified according to the WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System; Defined Daily Doses (DDD) per 1,000 inhabitants per day were used. Compiled anonymised data were processed by means of descriptive statistics, contingency tables, correlation, Pearson χ2 test, ANOVA and linear regression. Results showed that zolpidem was prescribed mostly to women; the highest number of prescriptions were prescribed to women in the age groups 51 - 60 and 71 - 80 years. Patients younger than 55 years received only 29.87% of prescriptions in comparison with patients older than 55 years, who received 70.13% of all prescriptions. Data revealed differences in prescription by age, gender and Slovenian regions. Prescription of zolpidem has been in constant decrease since 2012, which is an example of good practice indicating that the guidelines for the treatment of insomnia in Slovenia are respected.
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