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Opioid prescribing for disabled Medicare beneficiaries related to county-level economic factors

December 28, 2017

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For non-elderly Americans on disability, local prescribing of opioid pain medications is significantly related to county-level economic factors like unemployment and income level, reports a study in the January issue of Medical Care, published by Wolters Kluwer.

About half of Medicare beneficiaries under age 65 received an opioid prescription in 2014, according to the new research by Chao Zhou, PhD, and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They find that opioid prescribing for disabled adults is higher outside of “large central metro” counties”-;even after accounting for local economic factors.

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