Changes in prevalence of psychotropic drug use and alcohol consumption among the elderly in Germany: results of two National Health Interview and Examination Surveys 1997-99 and 2008-11

Table 1 Descriptive characteristics of study populations aged 60-79 years. National Health Interview and Examination Surveys GNHIES98 (1997–99) and DEGS1 (2008–11)

	GNHIES98^a (N = 1606)				DEGS1^a (N = 2501)				P value
	n	%	95% C		n	%	95% CI
Sex
Men	727	47.0	44.7	49.3	1227	46.9	44.5	49.3	.962
Women	879	53.0	50.7	55.3	1274	53.1	50.7	55.5
Age groups
60–69 years	1031	52.5	49.9	55.1	1393	52.6	50.6	54.5	.970
70–79 years	575	47.5	44.9	50.1	1108	47.4	45.5	49.4
Living alone
Yes	355	24.2	21.0	27.7	506	21.3	19.2	23.6	.084
No	1174	75.8	72.3	79.0	1983	78.7	76.4	80.8
Urbanity^b
Rural	382	19.9	13.2	29.0	428	16.3	11.0	23.6	.113
Small city	333	18.9	12.4	27.8	586	25.6	19.0	33.6
Medium sized city	406	28.1	20.0	37.9	733	27.8	21.2	35.6
Large city	485	33.1	24.1	43.4	754	30.2	23.3	38.2
Region of residence^c
Northern Germany	375	26.0	18.0	35.9	641	25.6	19.1	33.5	.979
Central Germany	781	40.7	31.5	50.7	1137	41.4	33.6	49.6
Southern Germany	450	33.3	24.3	43.7	723	33.0	25.7	41.2
Social status
Lower	374	26.1	22.8	29.6	436	24.1	21.2	27.3	.393
Middle	935	59.1	55.8	62.4	1489	59.3	56.3	62.3
Upper	233	14.8	12.1	17.9	562	16.5	14.6	18.7
Officially certified disability
Yes	371	26.0	23.3	29.0	647	29.1	26.4	31.9	.079
No	1168	74.0	71.0	76.7	1797	70.9	68.1	73.6
Self-assed health status
Better	781	47.8	44.4	51.1	1498	58.1	55.5	60.7	<.0001
Worse	825	52.2	48.9	55.6	985	41.9	39.3	44.5
Polypharmacy^d
Yes	466	30.0	27.1	33.0	993	38.8	36.5	41.2	<.0001
No	1140	70.0	67.0	72.9	1508	61.2	58.8	63.5

^a Standardized to the population of 1.12.2010
^b Urbanity: Rural (<5000 residents), small city (5000 - <20.000), medium sized city (20.000 - <100.000), large city (100.000 and more residents)
^c Regions: Northern Germany (federal states: Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein), Central Germany (Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), Southern Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland)
^d Polypharmacy: Use of five or more different prescribed and OTC drugs (excluding psychotropics) in the last seven days
Missing values: Living alone (GNHIES98 n = 77, DEGS1 n = 12), social status (64, 14), officially certified disability (67, 57), self-assed health status (0, 18)
Figures in bold denote statistical significance

ISSN: 1471-244X