Impacts of social determinants of health on chronic opioid therapy for chronic non-cancer pain.

Aim: We aimed to investigate the association between social determinants of health and chronic opioid therapy.Materials & methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of electronic health records from five family medicine and internal medicine clinics in Oregon in 2020 and 2021. Our outcome variable was whether a patient was receiving chronic opioid therapy for chronic non-cancer pain. Our variables of interest included financial difficulty, insurance types, transportation barriers, currently married or living with a partner and organizations participation.

Results

Our results showed that patients with financial difficulty were more likely to have chronic opioid therapy (OR: 2.69; 95% CI: 1.14, 6.33).

Conclusion

Addressing patients' social determinants of health disadvantages is important for optimizing pain management.