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Abstract Background Many countries, including Taiwan, have tightened regulations on prescribing sedatives-hypnotics over the concern of their associated adverse health effects. However, it remains seldom investigated whether different age-sex strata have differential trends in national surveys over time for either the use or nonmedical use (NMU) of sedatives-hypnotics. Comparing Taiwan’s two national surveys in 2014 and 2018, we aimed to examine (1) the population’s trends for the prevalence of past-year use and NMU of sedatives-hypnotics overall and in age-sex strata; (2) trends for sociodemographic subgroups for those age-sex strata with significant changes in past-year use and NMU of sedatives-hypnotics over time; and (3) trends for sources of and motives for NMU of sedatives-hypnotics. Methods The national survey enrolled 17,837 participants in 2014 (response rate = 62.2%) and 18,626 participants in 2018 (response rate = 64.6%) of citizens aged 12–64 years. Each participant anonymously completed a computer-assisted self-interview. The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic variables and the use of various psychoactive substances and sedative-hypnotics, among others. NMU of sedative-hypnotics was defined as using the drug without a prescription, or more frequently, or in larger doses than prescribed. To compare the prevalence between the two waves, we conducted multivariable logistic regression analysis and the difference-in-differences in prevalence was examined with an interaction term between survey year and sex. Results We found decreasing trends in young adult (18–39 years old) males for both past-year use (3.07–2.29%) and NMU (0.84–0.18%), but increasing trends in adolescents (0.42–0.80%) and young adult females (2.91–3.81%) for past-year use and in adolescents (0.16–0.39%) and middle-aged adult (40–64 years old) females (0.73–1.14%) for past-year NMU of sedatives-hypnotics. Among the young and middle-aged adult females, the increasing trends for past-year use and NMU, respectively, were found to occur mainly in certain sociodemographic subgroups, with alcohol users being the overlapping subgroup. Conclusions The differential trends over time of past-year use or NMU of sedatives-hypnotics in different age-sex strata in the population have policy implications to curtail the increasing trend over time.

Background: Mental health problems in young people are an important public health issue. Students leaving their hometown and family at a young age to pursue better educational opportunities overseas are confronted with life adjustment stress, which in turn affects their mental health and academic performance. This study aimed to examine the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and depressive symptoms using the stress coping framework in overseas Chinese university preparatory students in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at an overseas Chinese university preparatory institute in Taiwan. Of enrolled overseas Chinese university preparatory students at 2009, 756 completed a structured questionnaire measuring stress, strategies for coping with it, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Results: High levels of stress significantly predicted the adoption of active, problem-focused coping strategies (R² = 0.13, p < .01) and passive, emotion-focused coping strategies (R² = 0.24, p < .01). Acceptable CFI, SRMR, and RMSEA values from the structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that the model satisfactorily fits the stress coping framework, after active coping strategies were eliminated from the model. Results from the Sobel test revealed that passive coping strategies mediated the relation between stress and depressive symptoms (z = 8.06, p < .001). Conclusion: Our study results suggested that stress is associated with coping strategies and depressive symptoms and passive strategies mediate the relation between stress and depressive symptoms in overseas Chinese university preparatory students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]