Opioid Prescribing Rates by Congressional Districts, United States, 2016.

Publisher: American Public Health Association Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 1254074 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1541-0048 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00900036 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Am J Public Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Washington, DC : American Public Health Association
Original Publication: New York [etc.]

Inappropriate Prescribing* ; Practice Patterns, Physicians'*; Analgesics, Opioid/*administration & dosage; Analgesics, Opioid/therapeutic use ; Appalachian Region ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Databases, Factual ; Geographic Information Systems ; Humans ; Rural Population ; United States ; Urban Population

Objectives: To determine the extent to which opioid prescribing rates vary across US congressional districts.
Methods: In an observational cross-sectional framework using secondary data, we constructed 2016 congressional district-level opioid prescribing rate estimates using a population-weighted methodology.
Results: High prescribing rate districts were concentrated in the South, Appalachia, and the rural West. Low-rate districts were concentrated in urban centers.
Conclusions: In the midst of an opioid overdose crisis, we identified congressional districts of particular concern for opioid prescription saturation. Public Health Implications. The congressional district geography represents a policy-relevant boundary and a politically important level at which to monitor the crisis and determine program funding. Furthermore, in the context of the opioid crisis, knowing how congressional districts rank across the country and in states is useful in the creation of policies targeted to areas in need.

Comment in: Am J Public Health. 2018 Sep;108(9):1124-1125. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304629. (PMID: 30088988)

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0 (Analgesics, Opioid)

Date Created: 20180720 Date Completed: 20190904 Latest Revision: 20230928

20250114

PMC6085036

10.2105/AJPH.2018.304532

30024809