ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2018
County and Physician Variation in Benzodiazepine Prescribing to Medicare Beneficiaries by Primary Care Physicians in the USA.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between the number of benzodiazepine receptor agonists prescriptions and social determinants of health, including social capital: an ecological study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Benzodiazepine prescribing patterns among Medicare providers, 2017 to 2023.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Does Physicians' Clinical Competence, Communication Ability, or Cultural Background Influence Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing of Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs Among Older Adults With Insomnia?Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2024Article
- Relationship between facility number of clinicians and prescribing intensity of psychotropic medications, opioids, and antibiotics in ambulatory practice.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Article
- Hospice agency characteristics associated with benzodiazepine and antipsychotic prescribing.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Prescription characteristics associated with drug overdose risk among adults prescribed benzodiazepines: a cohort study.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2023Article
- Psychotropic medication use patterns in home-based primary care: A scoping review.The mental health clinician · 2020Article
- Inpatient and Discharge Fluoroquinolone Prescribing in Veterans Affairs Hospitals Between 2014 and 2017.Open forum infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Discontinuation of Chronic Benzodiazepine Use Among Adults in the United States.Journal of general internal medicine · 2019Article
- Linking a Survey of Clinician Benzodiazepine-Related Beliefs to Risk of Benzodiazepine Prescription Fills Among Patients in Medicare.Annals of family medicineArticle
- Integrating Social Determinants of Health and Laboratory Data: A Pilot Study To Evaluate Co-Use of Opioids and Benzodiazepines.Academic pathologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysicians widely prescribe benzodiazepines (BZD) despite well-recognized harms.
objectiveTo determine county and provider characteristics that predict high-intensity BZD prescribing by primary care physicians (PCPs) to Medicare beneficiaries.
designCross-sectional analysis of the 2015 Medicare Part D Public Use Files (PUF). SUBJECTS: n = 122,054 PCPs who prescribed 37.3 billion medication days. MAIN MEASURES: Primary outcome was intensity of BZD prescribing (days prescribed/total medication days) at the county- and physician levels. PCP and county characteristics were derived from the Part D PUF, Area Health Resources Files, and County Health Rankings. Logistic regression determined the characteristics associated with high-intensity (top quartile) BZD prescribing. KEY
resultsBeneficiaries were prescribed over 1.2 billion days of BZD in 2015, accounting for 2.3% of all medication days prescribed in Part D. Top quartile counties had 3.1 times higher BZD prescribing than the lowest (3.4% vs. 1.1%; F = 3293.8, df = 3, p < 0.001). Adjusting for county-level demographics and health care system characteristics (including supply of mental health providers), counties with more adults with at least some college had lower odds of high-intensity prescribing (per 5% increase, adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.80, 99% confidence interval (CI) 0.73-0.87, p < 0.001), as did higher income counties (per US$1000 increase, AOR 0.93, CI 0.91-0.95, p < 0.001). Top quartile PCPs prescribed at 6.5 times the rate of the bottom (3.9% vs. 0.6%; F = 63,910.2, df = 3, p < 0.001). High-intensity opioid prescribing (AOR 4.18, CI 3.90-4.48, p < 0.001) was the characteristic most strongly associated with BZD prescribing.
conclusionsBZD prescribing appears to vary across counties and providers and is related to non-patient characteristics. Further work is needed to understand how such non-clinical factors drive variation.
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