• Reg Anesth Pain Med · Dec 2020

    Self-reported disposal of leftover opioids among US adults 50-80.

    • Calista M Harbaugh, Preeti Malani, Erica Solway, Matthias Kirch, Dianne Singer, Michael J Englesbe, Chad M Brummett, and Jennifer F Waljee.
    • Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA calistah@med.umich.edu.
    • Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2020 Dec 1; 45 (12): 949-954.

    ObjectiveTo test the association between self-reported opioid disposal education and self-reported disposal of leftover opioids among older adults.DesignWeb-based survey from the National Poll on Healthy Aging (March 2018) using population-based weighting for nationally representative estimates.SubjectsOlder adults aged 50-80 years who reported filling an opioid prescription within the past 2 years.MethodsRespondents were asked whether they received education from a prescriber or pharmacist on how to dispose of leftover opioids and whether they disposed of leftover opioids from recent prescriptions. The association between self-reported opioid disposal education and self-reported disposal of leftover opioids was estimated with multivariable logistic regression, testing for interactions with respondent demographics.ResultsAmong 2013 respondents (74% response rate), 596 (28.9% (26.8%-31.2%)) were prescribed opioids within the past 2 years. Education on opioid disposal was reported by 40.1% of respondents (35.8%-44.5%). Among 295 respondents with leftover medication, 19.0% (14.6%-24.5%) disposed of the leftover medications. Opioid disposal education was associated with a greater likelihood of self-reported disposal of leftover opioids among non-white respondents as compared with white non-Hispanic respondents (36.7% (16.8%-56.6%) vs 7.8% (0.1%-15.6%), p<0.01).ConclusionsIn this nationally representative survey, 49% had leftover opioids, yet only 20% of older adults reported disposal of leftover opioids. Opioid disposal education was variable in delivery, but was associated with disposal behaviors among certain populations. Strategies to promote disposal should integrate patient education on the risks of leftover opioid medications and explore additional barriers to accessing opioid disposal methods.© American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…