Table 6.

Overall summary of associations with long-term and stronger opioid prescribing (+=adjusted OR of 1–2; ++=OR of 2–3; +++=OR over 3; italics=OR <1)

	Associations with long-term opioid prescribing	Associations with prescribing of stronger opioids	Associations with stepping up from weaker to stronger opioids	Associations with stepping down from stronger to weaker opioids
Age and gender	Female 50–64+ Female over 65++ Male (any age)+	Female 50–64+ Female over 65+ Male 18–49+ Male over 65−	Male over 65−	Male 18–49−
Ethnicity (fitted as random effect)	Pakistani, other and unknown ethnicity−	Pakistani and other ethnicity−	Pakistani, other and unknown ethnicity−	Pakistani and other ethnicity+
Morbidity and health behaviour	Mental health problem+	Mental health problem+
	Definitive diagnosis+	Definitive diagnosis+	Definitive diagnosis+
	Clinical presentation without definitive diagnosis−		Clinical presentation without definitive diagnosis+
		Overweight or obese−	Underweight+++
	Increasing polypharmacy+++	Increasing polypharmacy+++	Increasing polypharmacy+++	Polypharmacy−
Consulting behaviour	7–12 consultations per annum− 13 or over consultations per annum+	13 or over consultations per annum+	7–12 consultations per annum+ 13 or over consultations per annum+++
	Increasing missed appointments+	Increasing missed appointments+
Referrals	Diagnostic− Medicine− MSK+ Neurology+ Specialist pain management+++	Neurology+ Specialist pain management+++	Medicine+ MSK+ Neurology+ Specialist pain management+++ Surgery+	Neurology− Specialist pain management−
Practice IMD	Higher IMD+

IMD, Index of Multiple Deprivation; MSK, musculoskeletal