Citation

Liu Y, Cai J, Hoff GL, Hong L, Okah FA. Int. J. Pharm. Pract. 2011; 19(3): 166-170.

Affiliation

Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration, The University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Pharmacy Office of Epidemiology and Community Health Monitoring, Kansas City Health Department, Kansas City, Missouri Division of Community Oral Health, College of Dentistry, The University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee Department of Pediatrics, The University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.2042-7174.2010.00093.x

PMID

21554441

Abstract

Objective  The study objective was to identify demographic risk factors associated with emergency room visits caused by benzodiazepine poisoning. Methods  A retrospective study was conducted utilizing Missouri Hospital Discharge Data for Kansas City, Missouri, USA, for 2001-2007. The data included patients' demographics such as racial group, age, sex, health insurance status and annual income. Emergency room visits due to benzodiazepine poisoning were identified by ICD-9 code 969.4. The frequencies of patient visits were calculated according to categories of each demographic variable. Chi-square tests were used to assess the difference of emergency room visits among categories of each demographic variable. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed, where the outcome variable was emergency room visits due to benzodiazepine poisoning (yes/no), and the independent variables were the demographic variables. Key findings  Of 1 317 566 emergency room visits over the 7-year period, 562 were due to benzodiazepine poisoning. Seventy-seven per cent of these visits were made by patients who were white, of whom 53% were 30-49 years old, 56% were female, 74% had health insurance and 44% lived in zip codes with median family incomes of $40 000-59 999. Chi-square tests were significant for racial group, age and annual income (P < 0.01). In the logistic regression white patients were 73% more likely than black patients to have emergency room visits caused by benzodiazepine poisoning (P < 0.01), with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 5.63 (4.33-7.30). Compared with those aged 0-19 years, the odds ratio for patients aged 30-39 to have such visits was 2.73 (2.09-3.57), and the odds ratio for patients aged 40-49 was 2.84 (2.17-3.71). Conclusions  White patients and patients aged 30-49 years were at higher risk for emergency room visits due to benzodiazepine poisoning. Health interventions such as medication review by pharmacists may reduce the risk of benzodiazepine poisoning for these patients.

Language: en