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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Pain. 2020 Jun;161(6):1297–1310. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001812

Table 8.

Medication and demographic characteristics of patients with markers of morbidity and mortality after an opioid prescription

Overdose
N= 170
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) N= 149 Mortality
N= 201
N (% total sample) Relative Risk (95% CI) N (% total sample) Relative Risk (95% CI) N (% total sample) Relative Risk (95% CI)
Year of first opioid
 2005 8 (.46%) REF 6 (.35%) REF 13 (.75%) REF
 2006 29 (.85%) 1.83 (.84–4.00) 8 (.23%) 0.67 (.23–1.94) 26 (.76%) 1.01 (.52– 1.96)
 2007 21 (.48%) 1.04 (.46–2.34) 11 (.25%) 0.73 (.27–1.96) 26 (.59%) 0.79 (.41–1.54)
 2008 21 (.47%) 1.02 (.45–2.31) 9 (.20%) 0.59 (.21–1.64) 22 (.50%) 0.66 (.33–1.31)
 2009 23 (.54%) 1.16 (.52–2.60) 21 (.49%) 1.42 (.57–3.51) 15 (.35%) 0.47 (.22-.98)
 2010 22 (.53%) 1.15 (.51–2.69) 19 (.46%) 1.33 (.53–3.32) 22 (.53%) 0.71 (.36–1.41)
 2011 12 (.30%) 0.66 (.27–1.61) 9 (.23%) 0.66 (.24–1.85) 21 (.53%) 0.71 (.36–1.41)
 2012 10 (.28%) 0.61 (.24–1.53) 24 (.67%) 1.94 (.79–4.74) 21 (.59%) 0.78 (.39–1.56)
 2013 8 (.23%) 0.49 (.19–1.32) 15 (.43%) 1.24 (.48–3.18) 8 (.23%) 0.30 (.13-.73)
 2014 10 (.32%) 0.69 (.27–1.74) 12 (.38%) 1.10 (.41–2.92) 11 (.35%) 0.47 (.21–1.04)
 2015 2 (.07%) 0.16 (.03-.73) 9 (.32%) 0.94 (.33–2.63) 9 (.32%) 0.43 (.19–1.01)
 2016 4 (.15%) 0.32 (.10–1.07) 6 (.22%) 0.64 (.21–2.00) 7 (.26%) 0.35 (.14-.87)
Total opioids
 Single 82 (.28%) REF 60 (.21%) REF 85 (.29%) REF
 Multiple 88 (.67%) 2.37(1.75–3.20) 89 (.68%) 3.27 (2.36–4.54) 116 3.01 (2.27–3.97)
 2 36 (.48%) 1.70 (1.15–2.52) 34 (.46%) 2.20 (1.44–3.34) 27 (36%) 1.23 (.80–1.90)
 3 17 (.62%) 2.19 (1.30–3.69) 12 (.44%) 2.11 (1.14–3.93) 26 (.95%) 3.23 (2.09–5.01)
 4 or more 35 (1.20%) 4.23 (2.86–6.28) 43 (1.48%) 7.11 (4.81–10.50) 63 (2.16%) 7.35 (5.32–10.16)
First opioid type
 Oxycodone 107 (.55%) REF 92 (.48%) REF 74 (.36%) REF
 Hydrocodone 47 (.31%) .55 (.39-.78) 24 (.16%) .33 (.31-.51) 46 (.30%) .78 (.54–1.13)
 Codeine 12 (.17%) .31 (.17-.57) 11 (.16%) .33 (.18-.62) 40 (.58%) 1.51 (1.03–2.22)
 Tramadol 3 (1.19%) 2.14 (.68–6.70) 4 (1.58%) 3.32 (1.23–8.96) 1 (.40%) 1.03 (.14–7.39)
 Morphine 0 -- 16 (10.67%) 22.40 (13.5–37.15) 37 (24.67%) 64.39 (44.91–92.34)
 Fentanyl 0 -- 0 -- 2 (12.5%) 32.63 (8.75–121.69)
Age at first opioid
 0–11 years 10 (.07%) REF 19 (.13%) REF 94 (.66%) REF
 AYA (12–21 years) 160 (.58%) 8.18 (4.32–15.49) 130(.47%) 3.50 (2.16–5.66) 107 (.38%) .58 (.44-.77)
 0–5 years 3 (.04%) REF 12 (.16%) REF 58 (.78%) REF
 6–11 years 7 (.10%) 2.55 (.66–9.87) 7 (.10%) .62 (.25–1.62) 36 (.53%) .68 (.45–1.03)
 12–17 years 39 (.34%) 8.42 (2.60–27.25) 39 (.34%) 2.11 (1.10–4.01) 65 (.57%) .73 (.51–1.03)
 18–21 years 121 (.74%) 18.36 (5.84–57.71) 91(.56%) 3.52 (1.88–6.26) 42 (.26%) .33 (.22-.49)
Sex
 Female 71 (.38%) REF 87 (.46%) REF 76 (.40%) REF
 Male 99 (.43%) 1.14 (.84–1.55) 62 (.27%) .58 (.42-.15) 125 (.54%) 1.35 (1.01–1.79)
Ethnicity
 Not Hispanic/ Lantinx 53 (.46%) REF 40 (.35%) REF 53 (.46%) REF
 Hispanic/ Lantinx 95 (.45%) .98 (.70–1.37) 90 (.43%) 1.23 (.85–1.78) 93 (.45%) .97 (.70–1.36)
 Not reported 24 (.25%) -- 19 (.20%) -- 55 (.19%) --
Race
 White 101 (.51%) REF 91 (.46%) REF 85 (.43%) REF
 AI/AN 19 (.42%) .83 (.51–1.35) 17 (.37%) .82 (.49–1.37) 66 (1.45%) 3.41 (2.48–4.69)
 Black/AA 15 (1.16%) 2.30 (1.34–3.94) 12 (.93%) 2.04 (1.12–3.71) 28 (2.17%) 5.10 (3.34–7.78)
 Two or More Races 0 -- 0 -- 0 --
 Asian 33 (7.95%) 15.73 (10.75–23.0) 26 (6.27%) 13.7 (9.00–21.04) 18 (4.34%) 10.20 (6.19–16.80)
 Hawaiian/ PI 0 -- 0 -- 0 --
 Other -- -- 0 -- 0 --
 Decline to answer 2 -- 3 (.03%) -- 4 (.04%) --
Primary language
 English 165 (.44%) REF 142 (.38%) REF 176 (.47%) REF
 Spanish 3 (.08%) .18 (.06-.56) 0 -- 16 (.43%) .90 (.54–1.50)
 Other/ Not reported 1 (.11%) -- 7 (.78%) -- 9 (.89%) --
Encounter type
 Outpatient 26 (.48%) REF 41 (.76%) REF 65 (1.20%) REF
 Emergency 96 (.64%) 1.33 (.87–2.05) 44 (.29%) .39 (.25-.59) 31 (.21%) .17 (.11-.26)
 Inpatient discharge 31 (.25%) .52 (.31-.88) 59 (.48%) .62 (.42-.93) 85 (.69%) .57 (.41-.79)
 Day surgery 13 (.29%) .29 (.15-.56) 5 (.05%) .07 (.03-.18) 20 (.22%) .18 (.11-.29)
Payer status
 Private 40 (.28%) REF 28 (.20%) REF 60 (.43%) REF
 Public/Government 73 (.35%) 1.23 (.83–1.80) 88 (.42%) 2.11 (1.38–3.23) 122 (.58%) 1.37 (1.00–1.86)
 Uninsured 57 (.83%) 2.93 (1.96–4.39) 33 (.48%) 2.42 (1.47–4.01) 18 (.26%) .62 (.36–1.04)

Patients with this characteristic served as the reference group; % of Total Sample is also known as “Absolute Risk”; CI denotes confidence interval; Bold values indicate statistically significant values based on the CI; AYA= Adolescents & Young Adults; AI/AN= American Indian/ Alaska Native; AA=African American