Opioid prescriptions and patients' health services utilization and cost before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: an exploratory population-based administrative data analysis

• Published in: Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology 2023-09, Vol.101 (9), p.466-474
• Main Authors: Lopatina, Elena, Thanh, Nguyen X, Tanguay, Robert, Pereira, John X, Wasylak, Tracy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Coronaviruses; Costs; COVID-19; Dosage and administration; Economic aspects; Emergency medical care; Epidemics; Forecasts and trends; Health services utilization; Hospitalization; Medical care; Medical care, Cost of; Narcotics; Opioids; Pandemics; Prescription drugs; Utilization
• ISSN: 0008-4212; 1205-7541
• DOI: 10.1139/cjpp-2022-0544

The objective was to explore percentages of the population treated with prescribed opioids and costs of opioid-related hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits among individuals treated with prescription opioids and costs of all opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits in the province (i.e., provincial costs) before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Alberta, Canada. In administrative data, we identified individuals treated with prescription opioids and opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits among those individuals and among all individuals in the province between 2015/16 and 2021/22 fiscal years. Services used were counted on an item-by-item basis and costed using case-mix approaches. Annually, from 9.98% (2020/21-2021/22) to 14.52% (2017/18) of the provincial population was treated with prescription opioids. Between 2015/16 and 2021/22, annual costs of opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits among individuals treated with prescription opioids were ∼$5 and ∼$2 million, respectively. In 2020/21-2021/22, the provincial costs of opioid-related hospitalizations (∼$14 million) and ED visits (∼$7.0 million) were almost twice the costs observed in 2015/16 and immediately before the pandemic (2019/20). Our findings suggest that increases in the opioid-related utilization of inpatient and ED services between 2015/16 and 2021/22, including the drastic increases observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, were likely driven by unregulated substances.