Table 1.

Characteristics of long-stay nursing home residents who were prescribed a long-acting opioid at any point after admission

	Samplea (n = 22,253)
Age, years
<65	18.9
65-74	23.4
75-84	30.4
≥85	27.3
Women	71.4
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic white	85.6
Non-Hispanic black	8.7
Hispanic or Latino	4.1
Asian	0.9
American Indian or Alaskan Native	0.4
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.2
Multiracial	0.1
Admitted fromb:
Hospital	64.4
Community	20.7
Other	14.9
Life expectancy of <6 months	6.0
Degree of functional impairmentc
Moderate	43.8
Severe	29.2
Degree of cognitive impairmentd
Moderate	15.5
Severe	3.8
Parenteral feeding or feeding tube	4.8
Difficulty chewing	2.0
Difficulty swallowing	4.9
Key diagnoses
Cancer	14.1
Arthritis	35.4
Osteoporosis	18.3
Hip fracture	4.9
Asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/chronic lung disease	28.4
Respiratory failure	2.2
Heart failure	18.8
Alzheimer disease	5.3
Stroke	9.9
Rejected care	9.5

Percentages presented.

^aResidents were missing information on age (n = 6), race/ethnicity (n = 496), sex (n = 1), functional impairment (n = 13), cognitive impairment (n = 242), asthma (n = 7), cancer (n = 17), osteoporosis and respiratory failure (n = 11), stroke, heart failure, and arthritis (n = 10), other diagnoses (n = 12), rejected care (n = 46), feeding tube (n = 6), swallowing (n = 26), life expectancy (n = 70), pain (n = 808), pain frequency (n = 263), and pain severity (n = 593).

^b“Community” includes private home/apartment, board/care, assisted living, and group home. “Other” includes other nursing homes, psychiatric hospital, inpatient rehabilitation facility, mental retardation/developmental disabilities facility, hospice, and other.

^cBased on scores from 4 to 18: Resource Utilization Groups-III Activities of Daily Living score of 14 to 16 for moderate impairment, 17 or 18 for severe impairment.¹⁷

^dBased on the 4-level Cognitive Function Scale.¹⁸