Citation

Chung SD, Lin CC, Wang LH, Lin HC, Kang JH. PLoS One 2013; 8(6): e67459.

Affiliation

Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan ; Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0067459

PMID

23826304

Abstract

BACKGROUND: While an association between zolpidem use and fracture and road accident was previously proposed, this study aimed to further explore the frequency and risk of a wide spectrum of injuries in subjects prescribed with zolpidem in Taiwan. METHODS: We identified 77,036 subjects who received Zolpidem treatment between 2005 and 2007. We randomly selected 77,036 comparison subjects who were frequency-matched based-on their demographic profiles. We individually tracked each subject for a 90-day period to identify those who subsequently suffered an injury. Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed to calculate the hazard ratio of injury between the two groups. RESULTS: The incidence rate of injury during the 90-day follow-up period for the total subjects was 18.11 (95% CI = 17.69-18.54) per 100 person-years; this was 24.35 (95% CI = 23.66-25.05) and 11.86 (95% CI = 11.39-12.36) for the study and comparison cohort, respectively. After adjusting for demographic variables, the hazard ratio (HR) of injury during the 90-day follow-up period for study subjects was 1.83 (95% CI = 1.73-1.94) that of comparison subjects. Additionally, compared to comparison subjects, the adjusted HR of injury during the 90-day follow-up period for study subjects who were prescribed Zolpidem for >30 days was as high as 2.17 (95% CI = 2.05-2.32). The adjusted HR of injury to blood vessels for study subjects was particularly high when compared to comparison subjects (HR = 6.34; 95% CI = 1.37-29.38). CONCLUSIONS: We found that patients prescribed with Zolpidem were at a higher risk for a wide range of injuries.

Language: en