@article{ref1,
title="Risk of falls associated with long-acting benzodiazepines or tricyclic antidepressants use in community-dwelling older adults: a nationwide population-based case-crossover study",
journal="International journal of environmental research and public health",
year="2022",
author="Na, Inyoung and Seo, Junyoung and Park, Eunjin and Lee, Jia",
volume="19",
number="14",
pages="e8564-e8564",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Falls are common in older adults and increase in recent years. This study aimed to examine the risk of falls associated with long-acting benzodiazepines (BZDs) or tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) use in community-dwelling older adults. <br><br>METHODS: A nationwide population-based case-crossover design was used. We screened information on 6,370,275 fall or fall fracture cases among community-dwelling elderly patients from the database of the national health insurance data warehouse in South Korea. We extracted the data of elderly patients who visited the hospital for a fall and were diagnosed with the first fall or fall fracture after prescription of long-acting BZDs (n = 1805) or TCAs (n = 554). The study used conditional logistic regression analysis to analyze the associations and stratified analysis by gender and age group to control for their confounding effects. <br><br>RESULTS: Risk of falls or fall fractures increased by more than two times after taking long-acting BZDs (odds ratio [OR] = 2.16; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.85-2.52) or TCAs (OR = 2.13; 95% CI = 1.62-2.83). The longer the prescription period of both, the higher the risk of falls or fall fractures was (≥49 days for long-acting BZDs vs. ≥ 56 days for TCAs). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Long-acting BZDs or TCAs should be avoided or prescribed for a shorter duration based on these adverse effects. Health care providers should focus on fall prevention practices in older adults who take such drugs.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1661-7827",
doi="10.3390/ijerph19148564",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148564"
}