The Association Between Local Economic Conditions and Opioid Prescriptions Among Disabled Medicare Beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

This paper concerns public health crises today-the problem of opioid prescription access and related abuse. Inspired by Case and Deaton's seminal work on increasing mortality among white Americans with lower education, this paper explores the relationship between opioid prescribing and local economic factors.

Objective

We examined the association between county-level socioeconomic factors (median household income, unemployment rate, Gini index) and opioid prescribing.

Subjects

We used the complete 2014 Medicare enrollment and part D drug prescription data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to study opioid prescriptions of disabled Medicare beneficiaries without record of cancer treatment, palliative care, or end-of-life care.

Measures and

SUBMITTER: Zhou C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6300050 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature