Introduction: In Spain, 16% of the population consumes psychotropic drugs, where anxiolytics,
hypnotics and antidepressants are the most frequent. Its prevalence of consumption is double
in women than in men for all age ranges. Several authors indicate that this difference may be
due to gender stereotypes.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of psychotropic consumption in Andalusia and
to know the risk factors associated with the consumption of anxiolytics, hypnotics and
antidepressants disaggregated by sex.
Material and methods: Descriptive and multivariate analysis based on the 2016 Andalusian
Health Survey carried out on people over 16 years of age who were not institutionalized with
a sample size of 6,569 people (3,231 men and 3,338 women).
Results: Women are 2.1 times more likely to consume anxiolytics and 2.7 and 3 times more
likely to consume hypnotics and antidepressants, respectively. For both sexes the risk factors
associated with consumption are: being over 65 years of age and suffering from chronic pain.
For them, being single or widowed is a risk factor for consumption; in women, the probability
of consumption increases when they are engaged in unpaid domestic work, have average
levels of study or suffer chronic disabling pain.
Conclusions: This study confirms the influence of gender on the differential consumption of
psychotropic drugs between men and women. Our results indicate the importance of performing
analyzes disaggregated by sex to know which factors show the different associations in men or
women, and with that, to focus specifically on socio-health care.
Authors
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Eugenia Gil-García - Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, España
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Rocío Cáceres-Matos - Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, España
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Belén Núñez-Claudel - Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, España
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Ana Gálvez-Zambrano - Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, España
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Soledad Vázquez-Santiago - Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, España
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Andrés Cabrera-León - Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Granada, España Consorcio de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, España
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Nuria Romo-Avilés - Departamento de Antropología Social. Universidad de Granada, Granada, España
Keywords:
Andalusian Health Survey; Gender; Prevalence; Psychotropic drugs; Risk factors.