Living With An Opioid User Could Lead to Future Opioid Use

Individuals who live in a household with a prescription opioid user may have a higher risk of subsequently using prescription opioids themselves, according to a recent study.

For their study, the researchers retrospectively assessed administrative health care claims data from 2000 to 2014 of commercial insurance beneficiaries sharing a health plan with continuous prescription drug coverage. No patients included in the study had used opioids or NSAIDs in the prior year.
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Follow-up began at the date of the first prescription filled by a household member for an eligible opioid or NSAID and lasted until study participants had initiated prescription opioids themselves or had discontinued the study, following administrative censoring after 1 year, or until follow-up ended on December 31, 2014.

Ultimately, the researchers found that 12,695,280 individuals had been exposed to prescription opioids and 6,359,639 to prescription NSAIDs through an index prescription to a member of their household. Following adjustment via Kaplan Meier estimators, results indicated that participants exposed to prescription opioids through a household member had an 11.83% chance of initiating opioids within the following year compared with an 11.11% chance among those exposed to prescription NSAIDs through a household member (risk difference 0.71%).

The researchers noted that an unmeasured confounder modestly associated with exposure and the outcome after results were adjusted for other factors could potentially explain the estimated risk difference.

“Living in a household with a prescription opioid user may increase risk of prescription opioid use, which may reflect both increased access to these products as well as shared risk factors, such as prescriber preference and prescription drug monitoring,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Seamans MJ, Carey TS, Westreich DJ, et al. Association of household opioid availability and prescription opioid initiation among household members. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(1):102-109. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.7280.