Abstract
Objective
To examine dispensed opioid prescription patterns for limb fractures across racial/ethnic
groups in a pediatric population.
Methods
We used South Carolina's Medicaid claims data 2000 to 2018 for pediatric limb fracture
cases (under age 19) discharged from the emergency department. The key independent
variable was the child's race/ethnicity. The outcomes were: 1) whether the patient
had a dispensed opioid prescription; and 2) whether dispensed opioid supply was longer
than 5 days among cases with any dispensed opioid prescriptions. Logistic regression
models were used to test the association between race/ethnicity and the outcomes.
Covariates included age-at-service, gender, service year, and having multiple fracture
injuries.
Results
Compared with non-Hispanic White cases (NHW), the odds of receiving dispensed opioid
prescriptions were lower for cases of non-Hispanic Black (NHB) (OR = 0.73; 95% confidence
interval [CI]: 0.71, 0.75), Asian (OR = 0.69; CI: 0.53, 0.90), Other/Unknown (OR = 0.86;
CI: 0.80, 0.92), and Hispanic (OR = 0.84; CI: 0.79, 0.90) race/ethnicity. The odds
of receiving >5 days of dispensed opioid prescription supply did not differ significantly
among race/ethnic categories.
Conclusions
Our study confirms previous findings that as compared to NHW, the NHB children were
less likely to receive dispensed opioid prescriptions. Also, it reveals that the different
minority race/ethnic groups are not homogenous in their likelihoods of receiving dispensed
opioid prescriptions after a limb fracture compared to NHW, findings underreported
in previous studies. Children in the Other/Unknown race/ethnicity category have prescribing
patterns different from those of other minority race/ethnic groups and should be analyzed
separately.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: March 04, 2022
Accepted:
February 26,
2022
Received:
May 27,
2021
Footnotes
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Academic Pediatric Association
