Table 1. Baseline characteristics of 12,425 patients with chronic liver disease, overall and by opioid prescriptions over follow-up.
| Patient Characteristics | Total Cohort (N = 12,425) | No opioids (N = 6,625) | Moderate-risk opioid (N = 4,809) | High-risk opioid (N = 991) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||||
| Age (mean, sd) | 58±13 | 57±14 | 59±12 | 58±12 | <0.001 |
| Female (n,%) | 6,357 (51) | 3,195 (48) | 2,582 (54) | 581 (59) | <0.001 |
| Medicaid (n,%) | 1,456 (12) | 654 (10) | 634 (13) | 168 (17) | <0.001 |
| Race/ethnicity (n,%) | <0.001 | ||||
| Hispanic/LatinX | 96 (1) | 51 (1) | 39 (1) | 6 (1) | |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 781 (6) | 349 (5) | 382 (8) | 50 (5) | |
| Non-Hispanic White | 11051 (89) | 5854 (88) | 4277 (89) | 920 (91) | |
| Not specified | 334 (3) | 258 (4) | 64 (1) | 12 (5) | |
| Other race/ethnicity | 163 (1) | 113 (2) | 47 (1) | 3 (0) | |
| Married (n,%) | 7,138 (58) | 3,890 (59) | 2,716 (56) | 532 (54) | 0.003 |
| Medical diagnoses | |||||
| Cirrhosis (n,%) | 3,980 (32) | 2,064 (31) | 1,557 (33) | 359 (36) | 0.005 |
| HCC (n,%) | 103 (1) | 37 (0.6) | 54 (1) | 12 (1) | 0.002 |
| NAFLD (n,%) | 4,190 (34) | 2,307 (35) | 1,627 (34) | 256 (26) | <0.001 |
| Chronic Pain (n,%) | 5,420 (44) | 2,135 (32) | 2,637 (55) | 648 (65) | <0.001 |
| Depression (n,%) | 1,887 (15) | 667 (10) | 950 (20) | 270 (27) | <0.001 |
| Anxiety (n,%) | 1,690 (14) | 683 (10) | 753 (16) | 254 (26) | <0.001 |
| Substance Use Disorder (n,%) | 826 (7) | 297 (4) | 412 (9) | 117 (12) | <0.001 |
| Alcohol use disorder | 576 (5) | 308 (5) | 229 (5) | 39 (4) | 0.53 |
| Charlson Index (median, IQR) | 0 (0,2) | 0 (0,1) | 1 (0,2) | 1 (0, 3) | <0.001 |
Abbreviations: HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; IQR, interquartile range; NAFLD, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
High risk opioids are defined as >90MME/day or co-prescription with benzodiazepines; moderate risk are all other prescriptions opioids.