PDG51 EVALUATING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PRESCRIBING PATTERNS OF OPIOID MEDICATIONS IN THE U.S. FROM 2006-2015

To assess gender differences in opioid prescribing among men and women in ambulatory care settings and identify factors associated with prescribing of opioids. Retrospective analysis of data from The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) from January 1, 2006 - December 31, 2015. Dataset includes information on patient demographics and clinical factors. Study analyzed patients ≥ 18 years visiting physician offices. Data was analyzed using bivariate and multivariate regression models in SPSS 25.0 to explore differences in opioid prescribing among men and women and factors that lead to changes in opioid prescribing patterns. Significance level was set to P < 0.001. A total of 322,957 ambulatory care visits for adults were included in the analysis representing 7.8 billion weighted visits nationally with 771,601,088 (9.8%) weighted visits involving an opioid prescription from 2006-2015. Women had 449,277,925 (9.4%) visits with an opioid compared to men with 322,323,163 (10.4%) visits. Significant differences between men and women were observed for age, race, region, payment method, pain diagnosis, and history of alcohol/substance abuse and mental health disorder (P<0.001). Men had higher odds of being prescribed an opioid (OR 1.09; CI 1.096-1.097). Women ages 50-64 years (142,543,145; 11%) had a higher proportion of visits with an opioid, men 35-49 years (81,644,765; 13%) had the highest. Visits for black women had higher odds of receiving an opioid (OR 1.079; CI 1.078-1.079) and visits for white men had higher odds (OR 0.968; CI 0.967-0.968). Women were 1.2 times more likely to receive an opioid and men were 1.4 times more likely from 2011-2015 as compared to 2005-2010. The study demonstrated variations in prescribing patterns. Men are more likely to be prescribed an opioid as compared to women, but women are being prescribed more opioids overall. This can deliver baseline data for future studies on developing and implementing gender-specific interventions to reduce opioid prescribing.