Risk of Death Related to Psychotropic Drug Use in Older People During the European 2003 Heatwave: A Population-Based Case–Control Study

Objective The authors investigated the association between death of older people and use of psychotropic drugs before and during the Western European August 2003 heatwave. Method A retrospective population-based case–control study was conducted using the French social security insurance national database. Exposure to psychotropic drugs in cases aged 70–100 years who died before (N = 2,093) and during (N = 9,531) the August 2003 heatwave was compared with those of survivors matched for age, gender, and presence of chronic illness, by using conditional logistic regressions. Results The association between death and psychotropic drug use was modified by level of external temperature (Wald χ2 = 13.1, degree of freedom = 1, p