General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of general practitioner, patient, and prescription characteristics on the reduction of long-term benzodiazepine prescribing by sending a letter to chronic users. The data were analyzed with a method respecting the hierarchical data structure. STUDY DES...

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Main Authors: Stewart, R, Niessen, W, Broer, J, Snijders, T, Haaijer-Ruskamp, F, Meyboom-De Jong, B
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2007
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author Stewart, R
Niessen, W
Broer, J
Snijders, T
Haaijer-Ruskamp, F
Meyboom-De Jong, B
author_facet Stewart, R
Niessen, W
Broer, J
Snijders, T
Haaijer-Ruskamp, F
Meyboom-De Jong, B
author_sort Stewart, R
collection OXFORD
description OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of general practitioner, patient, and prescription characteristics on the reduction of long-term benzodiazepine prescribing by sending a letter to chronic users. The data were analyzed with a method respecting the hierarchical data structure. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Data were obtained from 8,170 chronic users nested in 147 general practices. One thousand two hundred fifty-six chronic users in 19 general practices received a letter with the advice to reduce or stop the use of benzodiazepines after the general practitioners had attended a course on benzodiazepine use. In a three-level random intercept multilevel regression model, long-term prescribing of benzodiazepines was the dependent variable. RESULTS: The reduction in benzodiazepine prescribing was significantly larger in the intervention than in the control group: 16% after 6 months and 14% after 12 months, respectively. The age of the patient, gender, and the interaction between age and gender were significant. The combination of the duration (long acting or short acting) with the type of benzodiazepine (anxiolytic or hypnotic) was an important pharmacological baseline covariate. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of benzodiazepine prescribing was mainly explained by the letter intervention and individual patient characteristics. Multilevel analysis was a worthwhile method for application in this study with its unbalanced design.
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spelling oxford-uuid:0d50ab68-dd5f-4b53-a6fd-1ef76baf30ad2022-03-26T09:39:55ZGeneral Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0d50ab68-dd5f-4b53-a6fd-1ef76baf30adEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2007Stewart, RNiessen, WBroer, JSnijders, THaaijer-Ruskamp, FMeyboom-De Jong, B OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of general practitioner, patient, and prescription characteristics on the reduction of long-term benzodiazepine prescribing by sending a letter to chronic users. The data were analyzed with a method respecting the hierarchical data structure. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Data were obtained from 8,170 chronic users nested in 147 general practices. One thousand two hundred fifty-six chronic users in 19 general practices received a letter with the advice to reduce or stop the use of benzodiazepines after the general practitioners had attended a course on benzodiazepine use. In a three-level random intercept multilevel regression model, long-term prescribing of benzodiazepines was the dependent variable. RESULTS: The reduction in benzodiazepine prescribing was significantly larger in the intervention than in the control group: 16% after 6 months and 14% after 12 months, respectively. The age of the patient, gender, and the interaction between age and gender were significant. The combination of the duration (long acting or short acting) with the type of benzodiazepine (anxiolytic or hypnotic) was an important pharmacological baseline covariate. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of benzodiazepine prescribing was mainly explained by the letter intervention and individual patient characteristics. Multilevel analysis was a worthwhile method for application in this study with its unbalanced design.
spellingShingle Stewart, R
Niessen, W
Broer, J
Snijders, T
Haaijer-Ruskamp, F
Meyboom-De Jong, B
General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title_full General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title_fullStr General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title_full_unstemmed General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title_short General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.
title_sort general practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study a multilevel application
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