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 3 Changes in the prevalence of past-year nonmedical use (NMU) of sedatives-hypnotics from 2014 to 2018 in subgroups stratified by sociodemographic data and substance use among males aged 18–39 years and females aged 40–64 years

	Past-year NMU of sedatives-hypnotics in young adult males								Past-year NMU of sedatives-hypnotics in middle-aged females
	2014			2018					2014			2018
Variables	N	n	%_wt		N	n	%_wt	Change	N	n	%_wt		N	n	%_wt	Change
Marital status
Married	718	2	0.18	797		0	0.00	-0.18	3042	20	0.64	3379		37	1.18	0.54*
Divorced or widowed	80	5	8.49	77		1	0.58	-7.91*	600	9	0.93	622		8	1.34	0.41
Single	2123	11	0.83	2492		6	0.24	-0.59*	319	3	1.19	402		3	0.50	-0.69
Education
> College	1760	6	0.38	2097		5	0.15	-0.23	996	6	0.40	1327		13	1.06	0.66
Senior high	958	8	1.44	1083		2	0.28	-1.16*	1371	11	0.78	1637		16	1.03	0.25
< Junior high	203	4	2.20	186		0	0.00	-2.20*	1594	15	0.95	1439		19	1.35	0.40
Occupation^a
Group I	1412	5	0.52	1602		4	0.18	-0.34	1101	7	0.39	1340		20	1.47	1.08*
Group II	537	4	0.62	524		3	0.58	-0.04	887	9	1.09	920		10	1.34	0.25
Group III	279	3	2.97	411		0	0.00	-2.97*	294	4	1.23	277		0	0.00	-1.23
Group IV	693	6	0.66	829		0	0.00	-0.66*	1679	12	0.69	1866		18	0.97	0.28
Urbanicity
Urban	364	4	1.46	535		1	0.24	-1.22*	602	7	0.75	678		7	1.46	0.71
Suburban	2094	12	0.63	2266		6	0.21	-0.42*	2792	19	0.71	2999		32	1.13	0.42
Rural	463	2	0.05	565		0	0.00	-0.05	567	6	0.83	726		9	0.84	0.01
Tobacco use	1003	10	1.38	943		5	0.49	-0.89*	169	8	5.56	198		4	1.70	-3.86*
Alcohol use	1846	12	1.11	1932		5	0.25	-0.86*	1090	11	0.86	1178		23	2.37	1.51*
Areca nut use	409	7	1.83	427		0	0.00	-1.83*	72	0	0.00	106		2	1.76	1.76
Prescription analgesic use	175	4	2.45	109		0	0.00	-2.45	269	5	1.14	210		4	2.10	0.96

^aGroup I = other occupations; II = service and sales workers; III = plant and machine operators and assemblers, elementary laborers; and IV = unemployed or retired
*P < 0.05 for a z-test comparing two proportions for changes (%), and ¶ at 0.05 < P < 0.06

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