Sammenheng mellom foreldrenes alkoholvaner, psykisk helse og utdanningsnivå, og forskrivning av legemidler for behandling av søvnproblemer hos barna.
Forskere fra Folkehelseinstituttet, Universitetet i Oslo og NTNU har i denne studien undersøkt om risikofaktorer som foreldrenes alkoholvaner, psykiske helse og sosioøkonomiske status hadde innvirkning på bruk av reseptbelagte legemidler for søvnproblemer og legemidler mot angst og/eller depresjon hos barna deres. Funn tyder på at en risikokofaktor ikke var assosiert med økt risiko for at barna fikk resept på sovemedisin uten også å bli behandlet for angst/depresjon, men med to av risikokofaktorene til stede fant forskerne økt risiko for foreskrivning av medikamenter for både søvnproblemer og angst/depresjon.
Publisert 18.08.2023
Sist oppdatert 01.11.2024
Ingunn Olea Lund, Njål Andersen, Helga Ask, Jasmina Burdzovic Andreas
Studien er publisert i BMC Public Health
Background: Parental drinking, mental health and family socioeconomic status are all associated with offspring sleep problems, but there is a paucity of research that considers the effect of risk factors, as they co-occur within and across families. Also, sleep problems are closely linked with mental health problems. Disentangling the effects on one or the other are important. We examined whether parental risk constellations are differently associated with offspring's subsequent prescription drug use for sleep problems during nine years with or without prescription drug use for anxiety and/or depression.
Methods: The sample included 8773 adolescent offspring of 6696 two-parent families who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. The exposures were five parental risk constellations, previously identified via Latent Profile Analysis, characterized by drinking frequencies and quantities, mental health, and years of education. The outcomes were dispensed prescription drugs in offspring during 2008-2016 for (a) only sleep problems (b) sleep problems and anxiety/depression or (c) only anxiety/depression. We used multinomial logistic regression to model the odds of the outcomes.
Results: Compared to the overall low-risk parental constellation, none of the risky constellations were significantly associated with increased risk of being dispensed prescription drugs only for sleep problems. Offspring from two different risk profiles were at increased risk for being dispensed both sleep and anxiety/depression prescription drugs. These were parental profiles marked by (1) low education, symptoms of mental health problems and weekly binge drinking in both parents (OR 1.90, CI = 1.06;3.42); and (2) frequent heavy drinking in both parents and symptoms of mental health problems in fathers (OR 3.32, CI = 1.49;7.39). Offspring from the risk profile with lowest parental education had increased risk of only anxiety/depression prescription drugs (OR 1.25, CI = 1.05;1.49).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that parental risk constellations are not associated with increased risk of offspring receiving sleep medications without also receiving anxiety/depression medications, as two risk constellations were associated with increased risk of dispensation of both sleep and anxiety/depression prescription drugs. Receiving both may be an indication of severity. The findings underscore the importance of including measures of mental health problems when investigating sleep problems to avoid misattribution of effects.