Days' Supply of Initial Opioid Analgesic Prescriptions and Additional Fills for Acute Pain Conditions Treated in the Primary Care Setting - United States, 2014.

During 2017, opioids were associated with 47,600 deaths in the United States, approximately one third of which involved a prescription opioid (1). Amid concerns that overprescribing to patients with acute pain remains an essential factor underlying misuse, abuse, diversion, and unintentional overdose, several states have restricted opioid analgesic prescribing (2,3). To characterize patterns of opioid analgesic use for acute pain in primary care settings before the widespread implementation of limits on opioid prescribing (2,3), patients filling an opioid analgesic prescription for acute pain were identified from a 2014 database of commercial claims. Using a logistic generalized additive model, the probability of obtaining a refill was estimated as a function of the initial number of days supplied. Among 176,607 patients with a primary care visit associated with an acute pain complaint, 7.6% filled an opioid analgesic prescription. Among patients who received an initial 7-day supply, the probability of obtaining an opioid analgesic prescription refill for nine of 10 conditions was <25%. These results suggest that a ≤7-day opioid analgesic prescription might be sufficient for most, but not all, patients seen in primary care settings with acute pain who appear to need opioid analgesics. However, treatment strategies should account for patient and condition characteristics, which might alternatively reduce or extend the anticipated duration of benefit from opioid analgesic therapy.

Patterns of opioid initiation at first visits for pain in United States primary care settings.

PURPOSE: The primary objective of this study was to characterize variation in patterns of opioid prescribing within primary care settings at first visits for pain, and to describe variation by condition, geography, and patient characteristics. METHODS: 2014 healthcare utilization data from Optum's Clinformatics™ DataMart were used to evaluate individuals 18 years or older with an initial presentation to primary care for 1 of 10 common pain conditions. The main outcomes assessed were (1) the proportion of first visits for pain associated with an opioid prescription fill and (2) the proportion of opioid prescriptions with >7 days' supply. RESULTS: We identified 205 560 individuals who met inclusion criteria; 9.1% of all visits were associated with an opioid fill, ranging from 4.1% (headache) to 28.2% (dental pain). Approximately half (46%) of all opioid prescriptions supplied more than 7 days, and 10% of prescriptions supplied ≥30 days. We observed a 4-fold variation in rates of opioid initiation by state, with highest rates of prescribing in Alabama (16.6%) and lowest rates in New York (3.7%). CONCLUSIONS: In 2014, nearly half of all patients filling opioid prescriptions received more than 7 days' of opioids in an initial prescription. Policies limiting initial supplies have the potential to substantially impact opioid prescribing in the primary care setting.

Changes in Outpatient Use of Antibiotics by Adults in the United States, 2006-2015.

INTRODUCTION: Numerous initiatives over the past decade have targeted the problem of antibiotic overuse in the US; however, the cumulative impact of such initiatives upon recent patterns of use is not known. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to (1) describe general trends in outpatient antibiotic use among adults over the period 2006-2015; and (2) identify rapid shifts in use during this time period as potential indicators for key events. METHODS: This was an observational study set in the ambulatory setting. Patients ≥ 18 years of age were selected from the Optum Clinformatics Datamart™, a commercial insurance claims database. The outcome measures of interest were prescriptions filled/1000 enrolled individuals, by year or quarter. We used linear regression to identify trends in use over multiple years, and change-point regression to identify rapid shifts in use within individual years. RESULTS: From 2006 to 2015, antibiotic use declined significantly, decreasing by 12% for adults younger than 65 years of age (913-807 prescriptions/1000 individuals, p = 0.0001) and by 5% for adults ≥ 65 years of age (991-943 prescriptions/1000 individuals, p = 0.018). With change-point regression, we identified a number of rapid shifts in the use of specific antibiotic classes, such as downward shifts in the use of quinolones and macrolides during the second quarter of 2008 and 2013, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Over the period 2006-2015 outpatient use of antibiotics decreased substantially among adults. Rapid shifts in use occurring in 2008 and 2013 may reflect the presence of key drivers of change, such as abrupt changes in access to care or perceived antibiotic safety.

Use of Electronic Health Record Data to Evaluate the Impact of Race on 30-Day Mortality in Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

INTRODUCTION: The current body of literature examining the impact of race upon outcomes for patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is limited. The primary objective of our study was to explore this question using a large cohort drawn from an electronic health record (EHR)-based data source. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care (MIMIC-II), an EHR-derived database encompassing ICU admissions to an academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts, between 2001 and 2008. Adults admitted to a medical or surgical ICU were assessed for the primary outcome of 30-day mortality and secondary outcomes of in-hospital mortality and hospital length-of-stay. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association between race and the primary outcome. RESULTS: The study cohort consisted of 14,684 adult ICU patients-10,562 White, 1311 Black, 363 Asian, 868 "Other," and 1580 without known race. Thirty-day mortality rates experienced by Black and Asian individuals were significantly lower than mortality among those identified as White, with odds ratios of 0.62 (95 % CI 0.50-0.77) and 0.64 (95 % CI 0.44-0.93), respectively. Patients without known race experienced the highest crude mortality overall (27.4 %) and twice the adjusted odds of mortality compared with the White group. CONCLUSIONS: In a large, racially diverse cohort of general ICU patients, White patients experienced significantly higher mortality than non-White patients. Our results are consistent with findings from other studies that indicate that the non-White race does not appear to negatively impact short-term survival following ICU admission.