Opioid-related incident severity and emergency medical service naloxone administration by sex in Massachusetts, 2013-2019.

Background: A Cross-sectional study of all emergency ambulance runs reported by licensed Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers between 2013 and 2019 was undertaken to determine if the sex of a patient experiencing opioid-related symptoms had an impact on their odds of receiving naloxone from EMS. Methods: All runs within Massachusetts for individuals 11 years and older with a reported sex between 2013 and 2019 (n = 5,533,704 runs) were included. Covariates modeled were patient age, year of the incident, and county of the incident. Runs were separated into those that were opioid-related versus not; opioid-related runs were further subdivided into five severity categories including dead on arrival, acute opioid overdose, opioid intoxicated, opioid withdrawal, and other opioid-related incident. Results: Among opioid-related runs, women had 24% lower odds (95% CI 0.68-0.86) of appearing in the dead on arrival category and 20% lower odds (95% CI 0.78-0.82) of appearing in the acute opioid overdose category than men. Among acute opioid overdoses, runs where patient symptoms met Massachusetts EMS guidelines for naloxone administration, women had 18% lower odds (95% CI 0.76-0.89) of receiving naloxone than men. Conclusions: Sex-related differences persist in the odds of naloxone administration by EMS providers when controlling for symptom presentation.

Homelessness and Veteran Status in Relation to Nonfatal and Fatal Opioid Overdose in Massachusetts.

BACKGROUND: Compared with non-Veterans, Veterans are at higher risk of experiencing homelessness, which is associated with opioid overdose. OBJECTIVE: To understand how homelessness and Veteran status are related to risks of nonfatal and fatal opioid overdose in Massachusetts. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: All residents aged 18 years and older during 2011-2015 in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Data Warehouse (Veterans: n=144,263; non-Veterans: n=6,112,340). A total of 40,036 individuals had a record of homelessness, including 1307 Veterans and 38,729 non-Veterans. MAIN MEASURES: The main independent variables were homelessness and Veteran status. Outcomes included nonfatal and fatal opioid overdose. RESULTS: A higher proportion of Veterans with a record of homelessness were older than 45 years (77% vs. 48%), male (80% vs. 62%), or receiving high-dose opioid therapy (23% vs. 15%) compared with non-Veterans. The rates of nonfatal and fatal opioid overdose in Massachusetts were 85 and 16 per 100,000 residents, respectively. Among individuals with a record of homelessness, these rates increased 31-fold to 2609 and 19-fold to 300 per 100,000 residents. Homelessness and Veteran status were independently associated with higher odds of nonfatal and fatal opioid overdose. There was a significant interaction between homelessness and Veteran status in their effects on risk of fatal overdose. CONCLUSIONS: Both homelessness and Veteran status were associated with a higher risk of fatal opioid overdoses. An understanding of health care utilization patterns can help identify treatment access points to improve patient safety among vulnerable individuals both in the Veteran population and among those experiencing homelessness.

Using Electronic Referrals to Address Health Disparities and Improve Blood Pressure Control.

INTRODUCTION: Massachusetts developed and used bidirectional electronic referrals to connect clinical patients across the state to interventions run by community organizations. The objective of our study was to determine whether the use of Massachusetts's electronic referral system (MA e-Referral) reached racial/ethnic groups experiencing health disparities and whether it was associated with improved health outcomes. METHODS: We assembled encounter-level medical records from September 2013 through June 2017 for patients at Massachusetts clinics funded by the Clinical Community Partnerships for Prevention into 2 cohorts. First, all patients meeting program eligibility guidelines for an e-Referral (N = 21,701) were examined to assess the distribution of e-Referrals among populations facing health disparities; second, a subset of 3,817 people with hypertension were analyzed to detect changes in blood pressure after e-Referral to an evidence-based community intervention. RESULTS: Non-Hispanic black (OR, 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-1.6) and Hispanic patients (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4) had higher odds than non-Hispanic white patients of being referred electronically. Patients completing their hypertension intervention had 74% (95% CI, 1.2-2.5) higher odds of having an in-control blood pressure reading than patients who were not electronically referred. CONCLUSION: Clinical to community linkage to interventions through MA e-Referral reached non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and Spanish-speaking populations and was associated with improved blood pressure control.

Concordance Between Common Hypertension Control Algorithms in Electronic Medical Record Data.

Because quality improvement metrics and treatment guidelines are used to conduct research, evaluate care quality, and assess population health, they should, ideally, align. We used electronic medical record data to analyze variation between blood pressure control estimates calculated by using thresholds derived from National Quality Forum 0018 (NQF 0018) and Joint National Committee (JNC) treatment guidelines in a cohort of patients with hypertension. Percentage of patients with controlled blood pressure derived from each quality improvement or treatment guideline cutoff varied up to 16.1 percentage points. This variance demonstrates that discrepancies in blood pressure thresholds produce considerable variation in estimates; thus, treatment guidance and metrics should be selected carefully.

Redefining and categorizing emergency medical service opioid-related incidents in Massachusetts.

AIMS: To create a novel emergency medical service (EMS) opioid-related incident (ORI) tiering framework to describe more accurately the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts. By classifying the data, we could more accurately detail differing trends among the new categories. DESIGN: Free-text fields of Massachusetts EMS reports, from 2013 through 2020, were analyzed to identify ORIs and then categorized into a five-tier severity cascade based on symptom presentation: 'dead on arrival,' 'acute overdose,' 'intoxication,' 'withdrawal' and 'other ORI.' As a validation of the new classification, an emergency medical technician, paramedic and emergency medical physician reviewed clinical reports and assigned a severity category to 100 randomly selected cases. The algorithm then assessed the same 100 cases to determine if it could accurately identify the severity category for each case. FINDINGS: Validation of the algorithm by clinical review indicated a substantial level of agreement between the algorithm and the reviewers. Over half of all ORIs were acute overdose (55%), 21% were intoxication, 20% were other ORI, 3% were withdrawal, and 1% were dead on arrival. Overall ORIs decreased in 2020, but the number of 'dead on arrival' increased 32% from 2019. Administration of naloxone also differed between the categories, with 95% of acute overdose and 29% of intoxication receiving naloxone. CONCLUSIONS: This novel categorization of emergency medical service opioid-related incidents in Massachusetts, United States, reveals new trend details and strains on the emergency medical service system. Using these categories also improves dataset linkage within the state and interstate rate comparisons.

Stimulant-related incident surveillance using emergency medical service records in Massachusetts, 2013-2020.

BACKGROUND: As stimulant use increases across the United States, emergency medical services (EMS) are crucial touchpoints in the health care system. To better measure the prevalence of stimulant use, misuse, and EMS incidents related to stimulant intoxication, definitions for stimulant-related incidents (SRIs) are needed. METHODS: We used the Massachusetts Ambulance Trip Record Information System (MATRIS) from 2013 to 2020 to develop definitions of stimulant-related incidents. EMS runs reported to MATRIS were categorized based on stimulant-related words and symptoms. The three tiers were "any stimulant use" (class 1), "problematic stimulant use" (class 2), and "acute stimulant-related incidents" (class 3). A group of four reviewers studied over 650 cases in eight rounds to refine the search terms, achieving definitions with a correct characterization of over 80% of cases that the code selected. RESULTS: SRI definitions were applied against all EMS runs within Massachusetts between 2013 and 2020 (n = 6,584,836 runs). Of these, 43,538 (0.7%) met the class 1 definition, 38,669 (0.6%) met the class 2 definition, and 19,157 (0.3%) met the class 3 definition. Incidents at all tiers of severity increased over time and were more likely to occur among younger adults and males. Race and ethnicity data indicated that Hispanic/Latinx and Black non-Hispanic/non-Latinx residents formed a disproportionately large percentage of SRIs relative to their total percentage of EMS runs. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of all three tiers of SRIs are increasing in Massachusetts, and this protocol provides a source of administrative data on stimulant use that complements sources such as hospital, treatment-based, and/or prescribing records.

Sociodemographic factors and social determinants associated with toxicology confirmed polysubstance opioid-related deaths.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While prescribed and illicit opioid use are primary drivers of the national surges in overdose deaths, opioid overdose deaths in which stimulants are also present are increasing in the U.S. We determined the social determinants and sociodemographic factors associated with opioid-only versus polysubstance opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts. Particular attention was focused on the role of stimulants in opioid overdose deaths. METHODS: We analyzed all opioid-related overdose deaths from 2014 to 2015 in an individually-linked population database in Massachusetts. We used linked postmortem toxicology data to identify drugs present at the time of death. We constructed a multinomial logistic regression model to identify factors associated with three mutually exclusive overdose death groups based on toxicological results: opioid-related deaths with (1) opioids only present, (2) opioids and other substances not including stimulants, and (3) opioids and stimulants with or without other substances. RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2015, there were 2,244 opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts that had accompanying toxicology results. Toxicology reports indicated that 17% had opioids only, 36% had opioids plus stimulants, and 46% had opioids plus another non-stimulant substance. Persons older than 24 years, non-rural residents, those with comorbid mental illness, non-Hispanic black residents, and persons with recent homelessness were more likely than their counterparts to die with opioids and stimulants than opioids alone. CONCLUSIONS: Polysubstance opioid overdose is increasingly common in the US. Addressing modifiable social determinants of health, including barriers to mental health services and homelessness, is important to reduce polysubstance use and overdose deaths.

An Integrated Approach to Falls Prevention: A Model for Linking Clinical and Community Interventions through the Massachusetts Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund.

Older adult falls continue to be a public health priority across the United States-Massachusetts (MA) being no exception. The MA Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund (PWTF) program within the MA Department of Public Health aims to reduce the physical and economic burdens of chronic health conditions by linking evidence-based clinical care with community intervention programs. The PWTF partnerships that focused on older adult falls prevention integrated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Stopping Elderly Accidents, Death and Injuries toolkit into clinical settings. Partnerships also offer referrals for home safety assessments, Tai Chi, and Matter of Balance programs. This paper describes the PWTF program implementation process involving 49 MA organizations, while highlighting the successes achieved and lessons learned. With the unprecedented expansion of the U.S. Medicare beneficiary population, and the escalating incidence of falls, widespread adoption of effective prevention strategies will become increasingly important for both public health and for controlling healthcare costs. The lessons learned from this PWTF initiative offer insights and recommendations for future falls prevention program development and implementation.

A review of mortality from parasitic and vector-borne diseases in the U.S. Air Force from 1970 to 2012.

We review a unique set of documents, death certificates, cataloged in the U.S. Air Force Mortality Registry database, which tracks deaths for all current and retired service members. We screened the records for all deaths caused by parasitic, vector-borne, or zoonotic diseases between 1970 and 2013. There were 78 deaths caused by a variety of diseases such as amebiasis, malaria, strongyloidiasis, schistosomiasis, and pneumocystosis. We compare these deaths to U.S. national deaths. U.S. Air Force service members are more likely to die from malaria, strongyloidiasis, and Q fever than the average American but are less likely to die from pneumocystosis.