Characteristics of Patients with Chronic Pain Related Diagnoses and Long-Term Opioid Therapy Prescriptions
| Patients with Chronic Pain | Patients Receiving Long-Term Opioid Therapy | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepandemic | Early Pandemic | Late Pandemic | Prepandemic | Early Pandemic | Late Pandemic | |
| Characteristics | n = 2,8325 | n = 2,2079 | n = 2,1016 | n = 1,513 | n = 1,176 | n = 1,248 |
| Age (years) | ||||||
| <65 | 18,849 (66.5%) | 14,278 (64.7%) | 13,056 (62.1%) | 996 (65.8%) | 790 (67.2%) | 805 (64.5%) |
| >=65 | 9,476 (33.5%) | 7,801 (35.3%) | 7,960 (37.9%) | 517 (34.2%) | 386 (32.8%) | 443 (35.5%) |
| Gender | ||||||
| Female | 17,014 (60.1%) | 13,091 (59.3%) | 12,513 (59.5%) | 879 (58.1%) | 652 (55.4%) | 715 (57.3%) |
| Male | 11,307 (39.9%) | 8,987 (40.7%) | 8,502 (40.5%) | 634 (41.9%) | 524 (44.6%) | 533 (42.7%) |
| Race | ||||||
| White | 21,539 (76.0%) | 16,676 (75.5%) | 15,833 (75.3%) | 1,175 (77.7%) | 892 (75.9%) | 913 (73.2%) |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 320 (1.1%) | 268 (1.2%) | 243 (1.2%) | 25 (1.7%) | 15 (1.3%) | 17 (1.4%) |
| Asian | 1,921 (6.8%) | 1,546 (7.0%) | 1,517 (7.2%) | 38 (2.5%) | 34 (2.9%) | 41 (3.3%) |
| Black or African American | 2,773 (9.8%) | 2,308 (10.5%) | 2,219 (10.6%) | 209 (13.8%) | 187 (15.9%) | 231 (18.5%) |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 167 (0.6%) | 124 (0.6%) | 118 (0.6%) | 7 (0.5%) | 5 (0.4%) | 5 (0.4%) |
| Mixed race | 235 (0.8%) | 209 (0.9%) | 192 (0.9%) | 21 (1.4%) | 20 (1.7%) | 22 (1.8%) |
| Refused or unknown | 1,370 (4.8%) | 948 (4.3%) | 894 (4.3%) | 38 (2.5%) | 23 (2.0%) | 19 (1.5%) |
| Ethnicity | ||||||
| Hispanic or Latino | 3,716 (13.1%) | 3,021 (13.7%) | 2,893 (13.8%) | 86 (5.7%) | 57 (4.8%) | 67 (5.4%) |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 23,232 (82.0%) | 18,137 (82.1%) | 17,462 (83.1%) | 1,342 (88.7%) | 1,081 (91.9%) | 1,165 (93.3%) |
| Refused or unknown | 1,377 (4.9%) | 921 (4.2%) | 661 (3.1%) | 85 (5.6%) | 38 (3.2%) | 16 (1.3%) |
| Rurality | ||||||
| Rural | 6,386 (22.5%) | 5,979 (27.1%) | 5,716 (27.2%) | 434 (28.7%) | 415 (35.3%) | 382 (30.6%) |
| Urban | 21,591 (76.2%) | 15,977 (72.4%) | 15,192 (72.3%) | 1,054 (69.7%) | 745 (63.4%) | 854 (68.4%) |
| Revised Charlson Comorbidity, mean (S.D.) | 1.80 (2.78) | 1.79 (2.88) | 1.76 (2.84) | 3.94 (4.10) | 4.22 (4.29) | 3.83 (3.90) |
Time periods: Prepandemic included May 2019–February 2020; early pandemic included March 2020-December 2020; and late pandemic included January 2021–October 2021.
Rurality: This was calculated using the Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes defining urban as 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, 8.1 and 10.1, and other codes as rural.
Revised Charlson Comorbidity Index: The index is commonly used as a standardized measure of the burden of preexisting medical conditions in individuals and assigns a score for specific diseases based on their association with estimated yearly total costs of care that is then summed for an overall index score.