Journal
PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY
Volume 18, Issue 7, Pages 545-553Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/pds.1751
Keywords
inverse probability of censoring weighting; ethnicity; antidepressants; drug utilization; Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis; non-random loss to follow-up
Funding
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [N01-HC-95159, N01-HC-95169]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Introduction There is evidence that the utilization of antidepressant medications (ADM) may vary between different ethnic groups in the United States population. Methods The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) is a population-based prospective cohort study of 6814 US adults from 4 different ethnic groups. After excluding baseline users of ADM, we examined the relation between baseline depression and new use of ADM for 4 different ethnicities: African-Americans (n=1822), Asians (n=784) Caucasians (n=2300), and Hispanics (n=1405). Estimates of the association of ethnicity and ADM use were adjusted for age, study site, gender, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), alcohol use, smoking, blood pressure, diabetes, education, and exercise. Non-random loss to follow-up was present and estimates were adjusted using inverse probability of censoring weighting (IPCW). Results Of the four ethnicities, Caucasian participants had the highest rate of ADM use (12%) compared with African-American (4%), Asian (2%), and Hispanic (6%) participants. After adjustment, non-Caucasian ethnicity was associated with reduced ADM use: African-American (HR: 0.42; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.31-0.58), Asian (HR: 0.14; 95%CI: 0.08-0.26), and Hispanic (HR: 0.47; 95%CI: 0.31-0.65). Applying IPCW to correct for non-random loss to follow-up among the study participants weakened but did not eliminate these associations: African-American (HR: 0.48; 95%CI: 0.30-0.57), Asian (HR: 0.23; 95%CI: 0.13-0.37), and Hispanic (HR: 0.58; 95%CI: 0.47-0.67). Conclusion Non-Caucasian ethnicity is associated with lower rates of new ADM use. After IPCW adjustment, the observed ethnicity differences in ADM use are smaller although still statistically significant. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available