Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb:196:110240.
doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2023.110240. Epub 2023 Jan 4.

Opioid prescription and diabetes among Medicare beneficiaries

Sarah S Casagrande  1 , Adan Z Beccera  2 , Keith F Rust  3 , Catherine C Cowie  4
Affiliations

Opioid prescription and diabetes among Medicare beneficiaries

Sarah S Casagrande et al. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Aims: To determine the prevalence of opioid prescriptions among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries by diabetes status, and predictors of opioid prescription among those with diabetes.

Methods: This retrospective study used claims data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services among beneficiaries age ≥ 65 years who were continuously enrolled in Part A, Part B, and Part D Medicare between 2017 and 2019 (N = 709,374). Logistic regression was used to determine the odds of opioid prescription among those with vs without diabetes; and, among those with diabetes, significant predictors of opioid prescription.

Results: Overall, the prevalence of any opioid prescription was 30.8 % among persons with diabetes and 24.2 % in those without diabetes (p < 0.001); chronic use was 8.0 % and 7.4 %, respectively (p < 0.001). Those with diabetes had a 45 % higher odds of having an opioid prescription compared to those without diabetes after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics (OR = 1.45, 1.44-1.47). After adjustment for comorbidities/complications, the association reversed (OR = 0.83, 0.82-0.84). Persons with diabetes who had hypertension, obesity, CVD, neuropathy, amputation, liver disease, COPD, cancer, osteoporosis, depression, or alcohol/drug abuse had a 20 %-140 % higher odds of opioid prescription compared to those without these conditions.

Conclusions: Comorbidities and complications accounted for the higher odds of opioid prescriptions among those with diabetes.

Keywords: Comorbidities; Medicare; Opioids.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Trends in opioid prescriptions filled among Medicare beneficiaries by diabetes status, 2008–2019
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Karjalainen M, Saltevo J, Tiihonen M, Haanpaa M, Kautiainen H, Mantyselka P. Frequent pain in older people with and without diabetes - Finnish community based study. BMC geriatrics. 2018;18(1):73. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Krein SL, Heisler M, Piette JD, Makki F, Kerr EA. The effect of chronic pain on diabetes patients’ self-management. Diabetes Care. 2005;28(1):65–70. - PubMed
    1. Sudore RL, Karter AJ, Huang ES, et al. Symptom burden of adults with type 2 diabetes across the disease course: diabetes & aging study. Journal of general internal medicine. 2012;27(12):1674–1681. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kirk JK, Hunter JC, Mihalko SL, Danhauer SC, Shumaker SA. Perspectives of pain in patients with type 2 diabetes. Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism. 2019;14(3):215–219. - PubMed
    1. Hassoon A, Bydon M, Kerezoudis P, Maloney PR, Rinaldo L, Yeh HC. Chronic low-back pain in adult with diabetes: NHANES 2009–2010. Journal of diabetes and its complications. 2017;31(1):38–42. - PubMed

Substances