Concurrent Use of Hypnotic Drugs and Chinese Herbal Medicine Therapies among Taiwanese Adults with Insomnia Symptoms: A Population-Based Study

Table 1

Demographic characteristics and results of multiple logistic regression showing the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of patients with newly diagnosed insomnia ever been prescribed hypnotic drugs from the 1 million random sample of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) from 2002 to 2008 in Taiwan.

Characteristics	Total no.	Hypnotic users without using Chinese medicine, no. (%)	Hypnotic users coprescribed Chinese medicine, no. (%)	Hypnotic users coprescribed Chinese medicine/hypnotic users without using Chinese medicine
				Odds ratio	(95% CI)
Numbers of hypnotic users among insomnia population	54,042	5,848 (10.8)	19,994 (37.0)
Sex
Male	19,354	3,234 (55.3)	6,350 (31.8)	1.00	(2.34–2.66)
Female	34,688	2,614 (44.7)	13,644 (68.2)	2.49
Mean (SD) age at inclusion, years	48.8 (15.4)	55.1 (17.2)	49.9 (14.9)
Age groups at inclusion, years no. (%)
20~29	5,616	362 (6.2)	1,631 (8.2)	1.06	(0.93–1.22)
Male		184 (3.0)	477 (5.8)
Female		178 (3.2)	1,154 (2.4)
30~39	11,105	891 (15.2)	3,820 (19.1)	1.03	(0.94–1.14)
Male		506 (6.6)	1,184 (13.2)
Female		385 (8.6)	2,636 (5.9)
40~49	13,531	1,193 (20.4)	5,074 (25.4)	1.00
Male		675 (8.9)	1,536 (17.7)
Female		518 (11.5)	3,538 (7.7)
50~59	10,637	1,072 (18.3)	4,184 (20.9)	0.85	(0.77–0.93)
Male		550 (8.9)	1,118 (15.3)
Female		522 (9.4)	3,066 (5.6)
60~69	6,657	865 (14.8)	2,798 (14.0)	0.76	(0.68–0.84)
Male		488 (6.5)	962 (9.2)
Female		377 (8.3)	1,836 (4.8)
70~79	4,787	922 (15.8)	1,951 (9.8)	0.52	(0.46–0.58)
Male		545 (6.5)	821 (5.7)
Female		377 (9.3)	1,130 (4.1)
Over 80	1,709	543 (9.3)	536 (2.7)	0.24	(0.21–0.28)
Male		286 (4.4)	252 (1.4)
Female		257 (4.9)	284 (1.3)
$NT/month (Premiums)
0	11,542	1,279 (21.9)	4,735 (23.7)	1.00
1–19,999	27,391	3,268 (55.9)	10,123 (50.6)	0.85	(0.79–0.92)
20,000–39,999	9,601	729 (12.5)	3,303 (16.5)	1.13	(1.01–1.26)
≥40,000	5,508	572 (9.8)	1,833 (9.2)	1.03	(0.91–1.17)
Insured area
Taipei city	9,495	1,159 (19.8)	3,239 (16.2)	1.00
Kaohsiung city	3,735	364 (6.2)	1,392 (7.0)	1.46	(1.27–1.68)
Northern Taiwan	14,900	1,848 (31.6)	4,929 (24.7)	0.98	(0.90–1.08)
Central Taiwan	12,554	824 (14.1)	5,490 (27.5)	2.49	(2.24–2.77)
Southern Taiwan	11,910	1,401 (24.0)	4,407 (22.0)	1.28	(1.16–1.41)
Eastern Taiwan	1,078	155 (2.7)	439 (2.2)	1.01	(0.82–1.24)
Outlying islands	370	97 (1.7)	98 (0.5)	0.36	(0.27–0.49)
Types and prescription patterns of hypnotics
Usual treatment regimens	16,182	1,352 (23.1)	3,310 (16.6)	1.00
Zolpidem	1,623	350 (6.0)	265 (1.3)
Zopiclone	109	16 (0.3)	20 (0.1)
BZD-long	8,657	293 (5.0)	1,703 (8.5)
BZD-short	5,793	693 (11.9)	1,322 (6.6)
Mixed regimens
Co-prescribed two types of hypnotics	18,466	2,168 (37.1)	6,734 (33.6)	1.30	(1.20–1.42)
Zolpidem + Zopiclone	79	20 (0.3)	18 (0.1)
Zolpidem + BZD-long	1,796	275 (4.7)	486 (2.4)
Zolpidem + BZD-short	4,418	849 (14.5)	1,499 (7.5)
Zopiclone + BZD-long	136	25 (0.4)	40 (0.2)
Zopiclone + BZD-short	308	63 (1.1)	99 (0.5)
BZD-long + BZD-short	11,729	936 (16.0)	4,592 (23.0)
Coprescribed more than two types of hypnotics	19,394	2,328 (39.8)	9,950 (49.8)	1.90	(1.75–2.06)

NT$ refers to new Taiwan dollars, of which 1 US$ = 30 NT$.