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Characteristics and incidence of opioid analgesic initiations to opioid naïve patients in a Canadian primary care setting Klimas, Jan; Hamilton, Michee-Ana; Carney, Greg; Cooper, Ian R.; Croteau, Nicole; Dong, Huiru; Dormuth, Colin; Maclure, Malcolm; Socias, M. Eugenia; Ti, Lianping; et al.

Abstract

Objective: To examine characteristics and incidence of opioid analgesic initiations to opioid naïve patients in a Canadian primary care setting. Methods: This is a population-based cross-sectional study, outlining an analysis of health administrative data recorded in a centralized medication monitoring database (PharmaNet) covering 96% of population in British Columbia (BC), Canada. From the PharmaNet database, 5,657 doctors (87% of all practicing family physicians) were selected on the bases of (1) having been currently treating patients (defined as having written at least 25 prescriptions, for any drug, in preceding 12 months); and (2) having prescribed at least one opioid during study period. The primary outcome measure is incidence of new starts for opioid analgesics in opioid naïve people, stratified by several important prescriber and regional characteristics (e.g., graduation year, geographical location). Results: Between December 1 st , 2018 and November 30th , 2019, there were 139,145 opioid initiations to opioid naïve patients. The mean monthly initiation rate was 2.05 prescriptions per physician. Most initiations were in Lower Mainland regions of BC, also where the population is most concentrated (46,456, 33% in the Fraser region), by prescribers who graduated between 1986-1995 (39,601, 28%), and had less than 10 patient visits per day (72,506, 52%). Conclusions: From data presented in this study, it appears that the rate of opioid analgesic initiations in primary care remains unchanged. Individualized prescribing interventions targeted at physicians are urgently needed considering the current opioid epidemic and known links with opioid analgesics that raise concerns about the potential to cause harm.

Item Metadata

Title
Characteristics and incidence of opioid analgesic initiations to opioid naïve patients in a Canadian primary care setting
Creator
Klimas, Jan; Hamilton, Michee-Ana; Carney, Greg; Cooper, Ian R.; Croteau, Nicole; Dong, Huiru; Dormuth, Colin; Maclure, Malcolm; Socias, M. Eugenia; Ti, Lianping; Wood, Evan; McCracken, Rita
Contributor
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use
Publisher
Canadian Journal of Addiction
Date Issued
2021-06-18
Description
Objective: To examine characteristics and incidence of opioid analgesic initiations to opioid naïve patients in a Canadian primary care setting. Methods: This is a population-based cross-sectional study, outlining an analysis of health administrative data recorded in a centralized medication monitoring database (PharmaNet) covering 96% of population in British Columbia (BC), Canada. From the PharmaNet database, 5,657 doctors (87% of all practicing family physicians) were selected on the bases of (1) having been currently treating patients (defined as having written at least 25 prescriptions, for any drug, in preceding 12 months); and (2) having prescribed at least one opioid during study period. The primary outcome measure is incidence of new starts for opioid analgesics in opioid naïve people, stratified by several important prescriber and regional characteristics (e.g., graduation year, geographical location). Results: Between December 1 st , 2018 and November 30th , 2019, there were 139,145 opioid initiations to opioid naïve patients. The mean monthly initiation rate was 2.05 prescriptions per physician. Most initiations were in Lower Mainland regions of BC, also where the population is most concentrated (46,456, 33% in the Fraser region), by prescribers who graduated between 1986-1995 (39,601, 28%), and had less than 10 patient visits per day (72,506, 52%). Conclusions: From data presented in this study, it appears that the rate of opioid analgesic initiations in primary care remains unchanged. Individualized prescribing interventions targeted at physicians are urgently needed considering the current opioid epidemic and known links with opioid analgesics that raise concerns about the potential to cause harm.
Subject
opioid; quality improvement; health administrative data
Genre
Article; Postprint
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2023-03-01
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0407128
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/80939
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of; Family Practice, Department of; Medicine, Department of
Citation
Klimas, J., Hamilton, M.-A., Carney, G., Cooper, I. R., Croteau, N. S., Dong, H., Dormuth, C., Maclure, M., Socías, M. E., Ti, L., Wood, E., & McCracken, R. (2022). Characteristics and Incidence of Opioid Analgesic Initiations to Opioid Naïve Patients in a Canadian Primary Care Setting. Canadian Journal of Addiction, 13(1):43-50
Publisher DOI
10.1097/CXA.0000000000000135
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International