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
. 2024 Feb 4:10:100219.
doi: 10.1016/j.dadr.2024.100219. eCollection 2024 Mar.

Characteristics and co-morbidities associated with hospital discharges for opioid and methamphetamine co-use, United States 2016-2019

Riley D Shearer  1   2 , Nathan D Shippee  1 , Beth A Virnig  3 , Timothy J Beebe  1 , Tyler N A Winkelman  2   4
Affiliations

Characteristics and co-morbidities associated with hospital discharges for opioid and methamphetamine co-use, United States 2016-2019

Riley D Shearer et al. Drug Alcohol Depend Rep. .

Abstract

Introduction: The US overdose crisis is increasingly characterized by opioid and methamphetamine co-use. Hospitalization is an important opportunity to engage patients in substance use treatment. Understanding characteristics of co-use-related hospital stays can inform the development of services to better support this growing patient population.

Methods: We used 2016-2019 National Inpatient Sample data to conduct a cross sectional analysis of hospitalizations involving use of opioids, methamphetamine, or both. We used bivariate analysis to compare patient demographics. We then used multinomial logistic regressions to compare the proportion of hospital stays which indicated co-morbid diagnosis. To account for correlated data, we used generalized linear models to compare outcomes in hospital mortality, patient-directed discharge, and length of stay.

Results: Co-use-related stays had a higher proportion of co-morbid mental health (60.7%; 95% CI: 59.9-61.4%) and infectious diseases (41.5%; 95% CI: 40.8-42.2%), than opioid- or methamphetamine-related stays. Co-use-related stays increased between 2016 and 2019 and were associated with a higher proportion of patient directed discharge (10.7%; 95% CI: 10.4-11.0%) and longer length of stay (6.3 days; 95% CI: 6.2-6.4 days) compared to opioid (8.1%; 95% CI: 7.9-8.3% and 5.8 days; 95% CI: 5.8-5.9 days) and methamphetamine-related stays (6.5%; 95% CI: 6.3-6.6% and 5.5 days; 95% CI: 5.4-5.5 days).

Conclusion: Patients discharged with co-use differ from patients with opioid or methamphetamine use alone, representing a range of challenges and opportunities. In addition to offering treatment for both substance use disorders, hospital-based services that address co-occurring conditions may better support patients with co-use through targeted and tailored approaches.

Keywords: Addiction medicine services; Hospital; Methamphetamine; Opioid; Polysubstance use; Substance use treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

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.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, H.C. adn U.P. 2020. Introduction to the HCUP National Inpatient Sample (NIS) p. 2018.
    1. Alagappan A., Chambers T.J.G., Brown E., Grecian S.M., Lockman K.A. How does discharge against medical advice affect risk of mortality and unplanned readmission? A retrospective cohort study set in a large UK medical admissions unit. BMJ Open. 2023;13 doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068801. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alemu B.T., Olayinka O., Martin B.C. Characteristics of hospitalized adults with opioid use disorder in the United States: nationwide inpatient sample. Pain. Physi. 2021;24:327–334. - PubMed
    1. Booth B.M., Leukefeld C., Falck R., Wang J., Carlson R. Correlates of rural methamphetamine and cocaine users: results from a multistate community study. J. Stud. Alcohol. 2006;67:493–501. doi: 10.15288/jsa.2006.67.493. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chan C.A., Canver B., McNeil R., Sue K.L. Harm reduction in health care settings. Med. Clin. 2022;106:201–217. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2021.09.002. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources