The association between loneliness and medication use in older adults.
Age Ageing
; 50(2): 587-591, 2021 02 26.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32931548
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Loneliness is common in older adults, and it is associated with unhealthy behaviours, including substance use. We evaluated the association between loneliness and self-reported use of opioids and benzodiazepines in older adults.METHODS:
We used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey's 'Healthy Aging' sub-survey and included adults 65 years or older who administered their own medications. We classified individuals as lonely if they scored 6 or more on the three -item University of California, Los Angeles's Loneliness Scale. We used multinomial logistic regression models, adjusting for demographics and self-reported comorbidities, to describe the association between loneliness and daily or occasional use of opioids, benzodiazepines and non-opioid analgesics. We also explored the association between loneliness and polypharmacy.RESULTS:
Our cohort included 15,302 older adults, of whom 2,096 (13.7%) were classified as lonely. Daily use of opioids (4.1%) and benzodiazepines (1.7%) were less common than daily use of non-opioid analgesics (33.9%). Lonely older adults had higher daily use of opioids (odds ratio [OR] 1.61, 1.31-1.98) and benzodiazepines (OR 1.66, 1.21-2.28), but not non-opioid analgesics (OR 1.05, 0.92-1.19). Loneliness was not associated with occasional use of opioids, benzodiazepines or non-opioid analgesics in older adults, but was associated with polypharmacy (OR 1.27, 1.06-1.52).CONCLUSIONS:
Loneliness in older adults is associated with increased daily use of opioids and benzodiazepines. Further research should evaluate patient- and physician-level factors that mediate this association, and develop strategies to mitigate loneliness and its attendant adverse outcomes.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Analgésicos Opioides
/
Soledad
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Aged
/
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Age Ageing
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Canadá