JAMA network open
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Most prescription opioid misuse involves opioids prescribed to others-a form of opioid diversion. However, few indicators of diversion risk exist. Because family members can often access patients' opioids, one such indicator may be the frequency with which opioid prescriptions are filled by patients when their family members are engaged in opioid prescriber and pharmacy shopping ("doctor and pharmacy shopping"). To date, this frequency has not been estimated. ⋯ In this national study of US patients with private family insurance plans, 0.6% of opioid prescription fills occurred when at least 1 of the patient's family members met prescriber and pharmacy shopping criteria. For most of these fills, patients did not meet criteria. Findings suggest the potential for opioid diversion within families.
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Although prescription opioid use disorder is associated with substantial harms, strategies to identify patients with pain among whom prescription opioids can be safely prescribed have not been systematically reviewed. ⋯ While a history of substance use disorder, certain mental health diagnoses, and concomitant prescription of certain psychiatric medications appeared useful for identifying patients at higher risk, few quality studies were available and no symptoms, signs, or screening tools were particularly useful for identifying those at lower risk.
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Observational Study
Reach and Use of Diabetes Prevention Services in the United States, 2016-2017.
Coordinated efforts by national organizations in the United States to implement evidence-based lifestyle modification programs are under way to reduce type 2 diabetes (hereinafter referred to as diabetes) and cardiovascular risks. ⋯ Among adults at high risk for diabetes, major gaps in receiving advice and/or referrals and engaging in diabetes risk-reduction activities and/or programs were noted. These results suggest that risk perception, health care professional referral and communication, and insurance coverage may be key levers to increase risk-reducing behaviors in US adults. These findings provide a benchmark from which to monitor future program availability and coverage, identification of prediabetes, and referral to and retention in programs.
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Sepsis survivors, defined as adult patients who survived to hospital discharge following a critical care unit admission for sepsis, are at increased risk of long-term mortality. Identifying factors independently associated with long-term mortality, known during critical care admission for sepsis, could inform targeted strategies to reduce this risk. ⋯ This study suggests that generic and sepsis-specific risk factors, known during index critical care admission for sepsis, could identify a high-risk sepsis survivor population for biological characterization and designing interventions to reduce long-term mortality.
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Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. When used separately or in combination, smoking cessation counseling and cessation medications have been associated with increased cessation rates. ⋯ The lower rates of delivery of physician advice to quit smoking and the lower uptake of known prescription smoking cessation medications among men, younger adults, uninsured individuals, racial/ethnic minority groups, and those without smoking-associated comorbidities may be associated with the higher smoking rates among these subgroups despite an all-time low prevalence of smoking in the United States; this finding calls for a more targeted implementation of smoking cessation guidelines.