Study Findings from Indiana University Broaden Understanding of Opioids (Opioid-related Emergency Department Encounters: Patient, Encounter, and Community Characteristics Associated With Repeated Encounters)

2020 JUN 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Opioids have been published. According to news reporting from Indianapolis, Indiana, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We describe the prevalence, trends, and factors associated with repeated emergency department (ED) encounters for opioid usage across multiple, independent hospital systems. A statewide regional health information exchange system provided ED encounters from 4 Indiana hospital systems for 2012 to 2017.”

Funders for this research include Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction, National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Indiana University, “In accordance with a series of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) and ICD-10 diagnosis codes for opioid abuse, adverse effects of opioids, opioid dependence and unspecified use, and opioid poisoning, we identified patients with an ED encounter associated with opioid usage (9,295 individuals; 12,642 encounters). Multivariate logistic regression models then described the patient, encounter, prescription history, and community characteristics associated with the odds of a patient’s incurring a subsequent opioid-related ED encounter. The prevalence of repeated nonfirst opioid-related ED encounters increased from 9.0% of all opioid encounters in 2012 to 34.3% in 2017. The number of previous opioid-related ED encounters, unique institutions at which the individual had had encounters, the encounter’s being heroin-related, the individual’s having a benzodiazepine prescription filled within 30 days before the encounter, and being either Medicaid insured or uninsured compared with private insurance were associated with significantly greater odds of having a subsequent encounter. The ED is increasingly a site utilized as the setting for repeated opioid-related care. Characteristics of the individual, encounter, and community associated with repeated opioid-related encounters may inform real-time risk-prediction tools in the ED setting.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Additionally, the number of institutions to which the individual has presented may suggest the utility of health information exchange data and usage in the ED setting.”

For more information on this research see: Opioid-related Emergency Department Encounters: Patient, Encounter, and Community Characteristics Associated With Repeated Encounters. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2020;75(5):568-575. Annals of Emergency Medicine can be contacted at: Mosby-Elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Annals of Emergency Medicine - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-emergency-medicine/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting C.P. Balio, Indiana University, Dept. of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN 46204, United States. Additional authors for this research include K.K. Wiley, M.S. Greene and J.R. Vest.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2019.12.005. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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