The following is a summary of “Nationally Representative Rates of Incident Prescription Opioid Use Among United States Adults and Selected Subpopulations: Longitudinal Cohort Study from the National Health Interview Survey, 2019-2020,” published in the September 2024 issue of Pain by D’Souza et al.

Nationally representative rates of incident prescription opioid use in the U.S. adult population and specified subpopulations were unexplored; an interpretation of these rates and their predictors to assess trends and guide public health strategies was essential to understand. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the rates and predictors of incident prescription opioid use in U.S. adults, using data from the National Health Interview Survey (2019-2020) longitudinal cohort.

They created a 1-year follow-up study using random sampling of non-institutionalized civilian U.S. adults. Of the 21,161 baseline (2019) participants, 10,415 were in the final analytic sample, having also participated in 2020. Exposure variables were chosen based on the socio-behavioral model of healthcare utilization, with predisposing characteristics (sex, age, race), enabling characteristics (socioeconomic status, insurance status), health status (pain, disability, comorbidities), and healthcare use (office visits, emergency department [ER] visits, hospitalizations). Rates of new prescription opioid usage were estimated, and predictors were evaluated.

The results showed from the adults who did not use medication of opioids in 2019, the 1-year cumulative incidence of new opioid use in 2020 was 4.1% (95% CI: 3.5-4.6), with an incidence rate (IR) of 32.6 cases per 1,000 person-years (PY). Cumulative incidence, IR, and adjusted relative risk (RR) varied by participant characteristics. The highest IR was observed in individuals with ineffective pain treatment (81.6 cases per 1,000 PY) and those who visited the emergency department (ER) ≥3 times (93.8 cases per 1,000 PY). Participants with ≥4 painful conditions had an adjusted RR of 2.9 (95% CI: 2.0-4.1), and those with sleep problems had an RR of 2.3 (95% CI: 1.7-3.1).

They concluded that the study delivers nationally representative rates of incident prescription opioid use.

Source: jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(24)00621-7/fulltext