Table 3.

Association of clinical and visit characteristics with benzodiazepine use among older adult patients of non-psychiatrist physicians in the U.S. from 2007–2010 (n=32,544)

				Adjusteda
Clinical Characteristic	Visits with benzodiazepines (n=1,748)	Visits without benzodiazepines (n=30,796)	p	ORb	95% CI
Diagnoses/visit complaint
Anxiety, %c	8.2	.8	<.001	10.74	7.69–15.00
Insomnia	3.5	.7	<.001	4.22	2.82–6.30
Depression	5.2	1.3	<.001	3.09	2.12–4.52
Dementia	.5	.5	.77	1.11	.46–2.67
Substance use disorder	.5	.2	.11	1.68	.66–4.29
Any mental health diagnosis	19.0	4.8	<.001	2.77	2.17–3.54
Medical conditions
Asthma/COPD	18.2	11.7	<.001	1.71	1.38–2.11
CVA/CAD	16.7	13.6	.005	1.28	1.09–1.52
HTN/HL	67.5	58.2	<.001	1.50	1.26–1.78
CHF	5.7	5.0	.27	1.17	.92–1.49
Obesity	5.4	5.9	.54	.94	.69–1.29
Osteoporosis	9.8	6.3	<.001	1.56	1.26–1.93
Tobacco-user	8.8	5.7	<.001	1.57	1.22–2.02
Other psychotropic medication
Antidepressant	26.9	7.8	<.001	3.93	3.40–4.55
Antipsychotic	2.6	.8	<.001	3.41	2.16–5.39
Opioid	10.0	2.9	<.001	3.71	2.63–5.24
Mean total continued medications (SEMd)	4.6 (.1)	3.6 (.1)	<.001	1.1	1.1–1.16
Visit Characteristic
Psychotherapy	.9	.3	.009	1.68	.74–3.82
Stress management	3.6	1.2	<.001	2.04	1.28–3.27
Provider
Family practice (ref)	24.5	18.0	n/a	1.00	n/a
Internal Medicine	30.6	21.8	.75	1.05	.84–1.31
Other medical specialty	44.9	60.2	<.001	.63	.51–.77
Return visit with provider (ref: new patient)	91.8	90.1	.28	1.12	.84–1.50
Visit for a chronic condition (ref: no)	56.0	52.7	.09	1.13	.97–1.32
Visit disposition: scheduled follow-up (ref: no)	78.1	77.2	.56	1.05	.89–1.25
Mean number of visits in past 12 months (SEM)	5.2 (.2)	4.3 (.1)	<.001	1.03	1.02–1.04
Mean time with physician, min (SEM)	20.9 (.8)	19.9 (.3)	.08	1.00	1.00–1.01

^aAdjusted for diagnosis or reason for visit of anxiety and insomnia.

^bOR: odds ratio, reflecting the odds associated with benzodiazepine use.

^cPercentage of visit with a given characteristic, unless noted otherwise.

^dSEM: standard error of the mean.