Characteristics of Sample of Primary Care Clinicians Prescribing BZDs
| Characteristic | Overall (n = 100) | Responded (n = 61) | Did not Respond (n = 39) | P Valuea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male, No. (%) | 61 (61.0) | 36 (59.0) | 25 (64.1) | .61 |
| Age, y, mean (SD) | 56.8 (12.6) | 56.5 (10.4) | 57.4 (15.6) | .76 |
| Physician specialty, No. (%) | ||||
| Family medicine | 51 (51.0) | 36 (59.0) | 15 (38.5) | .04 |
| Internal medicine | 48 (48.0) | 24 (39.3) | 24 (61.5) | |
| Geriatric medicine | 1 (1.0) | 1 (1.6) | 0 | |
| Percentage of patients prescribed a BZD, mean (SD)b | 12.1 (6.3) | 11.5 (5.9) | 13.0 (7.0) | .62 |
| Benzodiazepine prescribedc | ||||
| Lorazepam | 89 (89.0) | 55 (90.2) | 34 (87.2) | NA |
| Alprazolam | 80 (80.0) | 51 (83.6) | 29 (74.4) | |
| Clonazepam | 67 (67.0) | 40 (65.6) | 27 (69.2) | |
| Diazepam | 49 (49.0) | 31 (50.8) | 18 (46.2) | |
| Temazepam | 44 (44.0) | 25 (41.0) | 19 (48.7) | |
| Clorazepate | 5 (5.0) | 3 (4.9) | 2 (5.1) | |
| Clobazam | 3 (3.0) | 0 | 3 (7.7) | |
| Triazolam | 3 (3.0) | 3 (4.9) | 0 | |
| Oxazepam | 2 (2.0) | 1 (1.6) | 1 (2.6) | |
| Flurazepam | 1 (1.0) | 1 (1.6) | 0 | |
BZD = benzodiazepine; NA = not applicable.
↵a Respondents were compared with nonrespondents using a χ2 test for gender and physician specialty and a t test corrected for unequal variance for age. For physician specialty, the χ2 test was conducted after removing 1 physician given the small sample size for geriatric medicine (n = 1).
↵b For percentage of patients prescribed a BZD, patient-level data and modified Poisson with robust SE values were used to examine if there was a relation between response status (0/1) and risk of being prescribed a BZD.
↵c Column percentages might sum to >100% because a given clinician can prescribe >1 BZD.