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Identifying opioid prescribing patterns for high-volume prescribers via cluster analysis
Nisha Nataraj1, Kun Zhang1, Gery P Guy1
1Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
|March 16, 2019
Summary
High-volume opioid prescribers, primarily in family and internal medicine, show distinct regional and drug-specific patterns. Understanding these patterns is crucial for addressing the opioid epidemic.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pharmacology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Opioid prescribing rates have decreased, yet significant provider variations persist.
- High-volume prescribers account for a substantial portion of opioid prescriptions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and characterize prescribing patterns among high-volume opioid prescribers in the US.
- To analyze variations in opioid type, prescriber specialty, and region.
Main Methods:
- Partitioning-around-medoids cluster analysis was performed on a dataset of 10,000 high-volume opioid prescribers.
- Data included opioid prescription counts, prescriber specialty, age, and geographic region from July 2016 to June 2017.
Main Results:
- Family medicine, internal medicine, and orthopedics were the most common specialties among high-volume prescribers.
- Hydrocodone and oxycodone were the most frequently prescribed opioids. Thirty-five distinct prescriber clusters were identified, often defined by a single specialty and region.
- Consistently high opioid prescribing was observed across specialties in Southern regions. Northeastern clusters showed higher oxycodone than hydrocodone prescribing.
Conclusions:
- This study clarifies prescribing patterns of high-volume opioid prescribers, who contribute significantly to overall opioid use.
- This knowledge is vital for developing targeted prevention strategies to combat the opioid overdose epidemic.
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