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Mental health
Research
Sleeping pill use in Brazil: a population-based, cross-sectional study
  1. Katia Kodaira1,
  2. Marcus Tolentino Silva2,3
  1. 1 Universidade de Sorocaba, Post-Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil
  2. 2 Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil
  3. 3 Post-Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universidade de Sorocaba, Sorocaba, Brazil
  1. Correspondence to Professor Marcus Tolentino Silva; marcusts{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to assess the prevalence of sleeping pill use in Brazil.

Design A population-based cross-sectional study with a three-stage cluster sampling design (census tracts, households and adult residents) was used.

Setting The Brazilian 2013 National Health Survey was used.

Participants The study population consisted of household residents aged ≥18 years. A total of 60 202 individuals were interviewed, including 52.9% women, and 21% reported depressive symptoms.

Outcomes The primary outcome was sleeping pill use, which was self-reported with the question, ‘Over the past two weeks, have you used any sleeping pills?’ The prevalence was calculated and stratified according to sociodemographic characteristics. The associated factors were identified from prevalence ratios (PRs) obtained through a Poisson regression with robust variance and adjusted for sex and age.

Results The prevalence of sleeping pill use was 7.6% (95% CI 7.3% to 8.0%), and the average treatment duration was 9.75 (95% CI 9.49 to 10.00) days. Self-medication was found in 11.2% (95% CI 9.6% to 12.9%) of users. The following factors were associated with sleeping pill use: female sex (PR=2.21; 95% CI 1.97 to 2.47), an age of ≥60 years (PR=5.43; 95% CI 4.14 to 7.11) and smoking (PR=1.47; 95% CI 1.28 to 1.68). Sleeping pill use was also positively associated with the severity of depressive symptoms (p<0.001), whereas alcohol intake was inversely associated (PR=0.66; 95% CI 0.56 to 0.77).

Conclusions One in every 13 Brazilians adults uses sleeping pills. There is a lack of information about the reasons for this use. Actions are required to raise awareness about the risks. The results could assist programmes in targeting rational sleeping pill use and the identification of factors demanding intervention.

  • epidemiology
  • insomnia
  • public health
  • sleep disorders
  • sleeping pills

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016233

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors KK performed substantial contributions to the analysis and interpretation of data for the work and drafted the manuscript. MTS delineated the work and critically reviewed the important intellectual content.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval National Research Ethics Committee (CONEP, Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa)

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Data available at Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (http://www.ibge.gov.br).