• Jordan M Harrison, Pooja Lagisetty, Brian D Sites, Cui Guo, and Matthew A Davis.
• Jordan M. Harrison is with the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, National Clinical Scholars Program, Philadelphia. Pooja Lagisetty is with the University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Internal Medicine, Ann Arbor, and is also with the VA Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, Ann Arbor. Brian D. Sites is with the Department of Anesthesiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH. Cui Guo is with University of Michigan School of Public Health, Biostatistics Graduate Program, Ann Arbor. Matthew A. Davis is with the University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor.
• Am J Public Health. 2018 Jun 1; 108 (6): 788-790.

ObjectivesTo examine national trends in the use of various pharmacological pain medication classes by race/ethnicity among the US pain population.MethodsWe used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to conduct a nationally representative, serial cross-sectional study of the noninstitutionalized US adult population from 2000 to 2015. We identified adults with moderate or severe self-reported pain and excluded individuals with cancer. We used complex survey design to provide national estimates of the percentage of adults with noncancer pain who received prescription pain medications among 4 groups: non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic or Latino, and other.ResultsThe age- and gender-adjusted percentage of prescription opioid use increased across all groups, with the greatest increase among non-Hispanic White individuals. By 2015, the percentage of non-Hispanic Black adults using opioids approximated that of non-Hispanic White adults-in 2015, approximately 23% of adults in these 2 groups used opioids.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first evidence of a narrowing divide in opioid prescribing by race. However, in the context of the national epidemic of opioid-related addiction and mortality, opioid-related risks do not appear commensurate with the purported benefits.

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