Pacific D
Antibiotic and Opioid Prescriptions (Rx) by Dentists in 2012: Variation According to County, Region, and Patient County-level Characteristics (307842)
Gregory S. Calip, University of Illinois at ChicagoAllen Campbell, IQVIA
Charlesnika T. Evans, Northwestern University
Walid F. Gellad, University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine
Alan E. Gross, University of Illinois at Chicago
Ronald Hershow, University of Illinois at Chicago
*Colin C. Hubbard, University of Illinois at Chicago
Jessina McGregor, Oregon State University
Susan A. Rowan, University of Illinois at Chicago
Lisa K. Sharp, University of Illinois at Chicago
Katie J. Suda, University of Illinois at Chicago
Keywords: Opioids, Antibiotics, Pharmacoepidemiology, Practice Patterns, Dentists, Drug Prescriptions
Dentists prescribe 1 of every 10 antibiotics and opioids. Due to the public health impacts of these drug classes, we aimed to identify county-level predictors and to determine if the rates of prescribing of antibiotics and opioids are associated.
Antibiotics and opioids prescribed by primary care dentists in 2012 were extracted from IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Data. Poisson regression examined the association between county-level factors and dentist prescribing rates (Rx/dentist). Correlation analysis examined the relationship between antibiotic and opioid rates.
Dentists prescribed 21.4 million antibiotics and 12.6 million opioids. Factors associated with higher antibiotic and opioid rates include lower mean county income and lower dentist per capita (rates omitted due to space limits). The South census region had the highest antibiotic and opioid rates. The correlation between antibiotic and opioid Rx rates was high (0.75).
Dental prescribing of the two classes follow similar patterns and were highly correlated, even when adjusting for county-level characteristics. Targeted interventions to improve antibiotic and opioid Rx may be more efficient if combined.