Trends in the use and nonmedical use of sedatives-hypnotics in the population aged 12 to 64 years in Taiwan: a comparative analysis of the national surveys in 2014 and 2018

Table 1 Comparison of the prevalence of past-year use and nonmedical use (NMU) of sedatives-hypnotics between the 2014 and 2018 waves of the national survey in Taiwan

	Sample size		Past-year use of sedatives-hypnotics							Past-year NMU of sedatives-hypnotics
	2014	2018	2014			2018		Changes (%)	DID (%)	2014			2018		Changes (%)	DID (%)
Variable	N	N	n	%_wt (SE)	n		%_wt (SE)	Changes (%)	DID (%)	n	%_wt (SE)	n 119 (0.67) 10 (0.28)		%_wt (SE)	Changes (%)	DID (%)
Total	17,837	18,626	836	5.46 (0.25)	896		5.23 (0.22)	-0.23	-	100	0.71 (0.10)	119		0.67 (0.08)	-0.04	-
Stratification by adulthood
Adolescents	4445	3598	15	0.42 (0.16)	22		0.80 (0.20)	0.38*	-	2	0.16 (0.14)	10		0.39 (0.15)	0.25*	-
Adults	13,392	15,028	821	6.00 (0.27)	874		5.63 (0.24)	-0.37	-	98	0.77 (0.11)	109		0.70 (0.09)	-0.07	-
Stratification by age groups × sex
18–39 years
Male	2921	3366	80	3.07 (0.47)	71		2.29 (0.33)	-0.78¶	Ref	18	0.84 (0.28)	7		0.18 (0.08)	-0.66*	Ref
Female	2815	3144	94	2.91 (0.36)	114		3.81 (0.47)	0.90¶	1.68*	24	0.72 (0.17)	24		0.62 (0.18)	-0.10	0.57
40–64 years
Male	3695	4115	270	7.48 (0.60)	284		6.56 (0.49)	-0.92	Ref	24	0.81 (0.22)	30		0.74 (0.18)	-0.07	Ref
Female	3961	4403	377	9.99 (0.66)	405		9.02 (0.55)	-0.97	-0.05	32	0.73 (0.17)	48		1.14 (0.20)	0.41¶	0.47

Note: N = unweighted overall number; n = unweighted number; %_wt = weighted prevalence; SE = standard error; DID = difference-in-differences of prevalence
*P < 0.05 for a z-test comparing two prevalence rates or a Wald chi-square test for the DID; ¶ borderline significant at 0.05 < P < 0.06

ISSN: 1471-2458