LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Opioid Prescribing for Long Bone Fractures at Discharge From the Emergency Department: A Cross-sectional Analysis of 22 Centers From a Health Care Delivery System in Northern California.

Photo from wikipedia

STUDY OBJECTIVE We examine racial and ethnic differences in opioid prescribing and dosing for long bone fractures at emergency department (ED) discharge. METHODS We conducted an electronic health records-based cross-sectional… Click to show full abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE We examine racial and ethnic differences in opioid prescribing and dosing for long bone fractures at emergency department (ED) discharge. METHODS We conducted an electronic health records-based cross-sectional study of adults with long bone fractures who presented to the ED across 22 sites from a health care delivery system (2016 to 2017). We examined differences in opioid prescribing at ED discharge and, among patients with a prescription, differences in opioid dosing (measured as morphine milligram equivalents) by race/ethnicity, using regression modeling with statistical adjustment for patient, fracture, and prescriber characteristics. RESULTS A total of 11,576 patients with long bone fractures were included in the study; 64.4% were non-Hispanic white; 16.4%, 7.3%, 5.8%, and 5.1%, respectively, were Hispanic, Asian, black, and of other or unknown race; and 65.6% received an opioid at discharge. After adjusting for other factors, rates of opioid prescribing were not different by race/ethnicity; however, among patients with an opioid prescription, total morphine milligram equivalent units prescribed were 4.3%, 6.0%, and 8.1% less for Hispanics, blacks, and Asians relative to non-Hispanic whites. CONCLUSION Racial and ethnic minority groups with long bone fractures receive similar frequencies of opioid prescriptions at discharge, with a small potency difference. How this affects pain relief and why it happens is unclear.

Keywords: long bone; opioid prescribing; bone fractures; emergency; racial ethnic

Journal Title: Annals of emergency medicine
Year Published: 2019

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.