Table 2.

Frequency and Patterns of Opioids Prescribed 30 Days Before and 30 Days After Non-Fatal Overdose

Opioid use measures	Before overdose	After overdose	Adjusted difference	Adjusted difference-in-difference
Any opioid use, n (%)	10,745 (66.3)	7845 (48.4)
White (n = 13,171)	8839 (67.1)	6462 (49.1)	− 18.3% (− 19.3, − 17.3)*	Reference
Black (n = 2314)	1428 (61.7)	1051 (45.4)	− 16.4% (− 18.8, − 14.1)*	1.8% (− 0.7, 4.4)†
Hispanic (n = 725)	478 (65.9)	332 (45.8)	− 20.5% (− 24.7, − 16.3)*	− 2.2% (− 6.5, 2.1)†
High-dose opioid use, n (%)‡	2577 (15.9)	1809 (11.2)
White (n = 13,171)	2197 (16.7)	1536 (11.7)	− 4.9% (− 5.5, − 4.3)*	Reference
Black (n = 2314)	294 (12.7)	215 (9.3)	− 3.2% (− 4.5, − 2.0)*	1.7% (0.3, 3.1)§
Hispanic (n = 725)	86 (11.9)	58 (8.0)	− 3.4% (− 5.4, − 1.4)*	1.5% (− 0.6, 3.6)†
Number of days receiving an opioid, mean (SD)‖	9.1 (10.1)	7.9 (10.1)
White (n = 13,171)	9.3 (10.1)	8.0 (10.1)	− 1.26 (− 1.48, − 1.03*	Reference
Black (n = 2314)	8.3 (10.0)	7.4 (9.9)	− 0.94 (− 1.46, − 0.43*	0.31 (− 0.25, 0.88)†
Hispanic (n = 725)	9.0 (10.0)	7.5 (10.0)	− 1.48 (− 2.40, − 0.56)§	− 0.22 (− 1.18, 0.74)†

Adjusted models control for categorical age, sex, Gagne Index, prescription insurance status, driving distance to the nearest VA primary clinic, region, rurality, and VA priority status. To estimate the adjusted difference and adjusted difference-in-difference, the interaction term between race/ethnicity and the dichotomized variable of before versus after overdose was included with the Stata margin option after the xtgee command. All p values for comparisons across the 3 racial groups were statistically significant at < 0.003 for both before and after overdose comparisons

SD standard deviation

*p value < 0.001

^†Not statistically significant

^‡High-dose opioid use is defined as having at least 1 day with > 120 MME

^§p value < 0.05

^‖The number of days receiving an opioid ranges from 0 to 30 days