Sex Differences in Medication and Primary Healthcare Use before and after Spousal Bereavement at Older Ages in Denmark: Nationwide Register Study of over 6000 Bereavements

Table 1

The frequency of all-cause and system-specific medication use within 1 year before and 1 year after widowhood.

ATC	Age	Men No.	Women No.	Users before				Users after
				Men		Women		Men		Women
				No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
All-cause	60–69	521	1242	416	79.8	1022	82.3	418	80.2^‡	1081	87.0
	70–79	925	1996	771	83.4^†	1777	89.0	807	87.2^‡	1837	92.0
	80+	707	1030	619	87.6^†	946	91.8	644	91.1^‡	975	94.7
ATC-C	60–69	521	1242	166	31.9	435	35.0	204	39.2	488	39.3
	70–79	925	1996	399	43.1^†	992	49.7	451	48.8^‡	1098	55.0
	80+	707	1030	387	54.8^†	629	61.1	431	61.0	653	63.4
ATC-N	60–69	521	1242	210	40.3^†	594	47.8	253	48.6^‡	768	61.8
	70–79	925	1996	414	44.8^†	1204	60.3	508	54.9^‡	1367	68.5
	80+	707	1030	399	56.4^†	715	69.4	454	64.2^‡	783	76.0
ATC-R	60–69	521	1242	102	19.6^†	299	24.1	113	21.7	315	25.4
	70–79	925	1996	207	22.4^†	526	26.4	217	23.5^‡	566	28.4
	80+	707	1030	177	25.0	255	24.8	192	27.2	266	25.8
ATC-A	60–69	521	1242	129	24.8	338	27.2	158	30.3	353	28.4
	70–79	925	1996	284	30.7^†	709	35.5	333	36.0	772	38.7
	80+	707	1030	292	41.3	461	44.8	342	48.4	497	48.3

ATC: Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system; ATC-C: cardiovascular system; ATC-N: nervous system; ACT-R: respiratory system; ATC-A: alimentary tract and metabolism medications.
^†P value < 0.05 for sex difference in the frequency of medication use before widowhood as obtained by chi-square test.
^‡P value < 0.05 for sex difference in the frequency of medication use after widowhood as obtained by chi-square test.