Patterns and disparities in prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines for older adults in North Carolina.

BACKGROUND

We characterized real-world prescribing patterns of opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs) for older adults to explore potential disparities by race and sex and to characterize patterns of co-prescribing.

METHODS

A retrospective evaluation was conducted using electronic health data for adults ≥65 years old who presented to one of 15 primary care practices between 2019 and 2020 (n = 25,141). Chronic opioid and BZD users had ≥4 prescriptions in the year prior, with at least one in the last 90 or 180 days, respectively. We compared demographic characteristics between all older adults versus chronic opioid and BZD users. We used logistic regression to identify characteristics (age, sex, race, Medicaid use, fall history) associated with opioid and BZD co-prescribing.

RESULTS

We identified 833 (3.3%) chronic opioid and 959 chronic BZD users (3.8%) among all older adults seen in these practices. Chronic opioid users were less likely to be Black (12.7% vs. 14.3%) or other non-White race (1.4% vs. 4.3%), but more likely to be women (66.8% vs. 61.3%). A similar trend was observed for BZD users, with less prescribing among Black (5.4% vs. 14.3%) and other races (2.2% vs. 4.3%) older adults and greater prescribing among women (73.6% vs. 61.3%). Co-prescribing was observed among 15% of opioid users and 13% of BZD users. Co-prescribing was largely driven by the presence of relevant co-morbid conditions including chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia rather than demographic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed notable disparities in opioid and BZD prescribing by sex and race among older adults in primary care. Future research should explore if such patterns reflect appropriate prescribing or are due to disparities in prescribing driven by biases related to perceived risks for misuse.