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Prescription Opioid Poisoning Examined by Zip Code
Addiction; ePub 2016 Sep 2; Cerdá, Gaidus, et al
Hospital discharge rates for prescription opioid (PO) poisoning spread from rural and suburban/exurban hot spots to urban areas, suggesting spatial contagion, according to a recent study. Researchers evaluated annual postal code-level counts of hospital discharges due to PO poisoning in California (n=18,517) from 2001 to 2011. They found:
- PO-related hospital discharges increased more in postal codes with greater pharmacy density, more arthritis-related hospital discharges, lower income, and more manual labor industries.
- Changes in pharmacy density primarily affected PO-related discharges in urban areas, while changes in income and manual labor industries especially affected PO-related discharges in suburban/exurban and rural areas.
- The distribution of age-related and workplace-related sources of medical needs for POs in rural areas and, to a lesser extent, the availability of POs through pharmacies in urban areas, partly explain the growth of PO poisoning across California.
Citation:
Cerdá M, Gaidus A, Keyes KM, Ponicki W, et al. Prescription opioid poisoning across urban and rural areas: Identifying vulnerable groups and geographic areas. [Published online ahead of print September 2, 2016]. Addiction. doi:10.1111/add.13543.