Linking a Survey of Clinician Benzodiazepine-Related Beliefs to Risk of Benzodiazepine Prescription Fills Among Patients in Medicare

In this pilot study, we used a Medicare sample to identify primary care clinicians who prescribed a benzodiazepine (BZD) in 2017 and surveyed a random sample (n = 100) about BZD prescribing. Among 61 respondents, 11.5% (SD 5.9) of their patient panels filled a BZD prescription. Patients of primary care clinicians who agreed that potential harms to long-term BZD users were low had a greater BZD fill risk relative to patients of disagreeing primary care clinicians (adjusted risk ratio 1.31; 95% CI, 1.01-1.7). We highlight the potential of using Medicare claims to sample clinicians. Using claims-based objective measures presents a new method to inform the development of behavior-change interventions. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2883
INTRODUCTION Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are a leading contributor to prescription drug deaths, (1) with the incidence of BZD-related overdose deaths increasing more than fivefold from 1996 to 2013. (2) However, the [...]