Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Opioid Use Disorder and Poisoning Emergency Department Visits in Florida
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Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Opioid Use Disorder and Poisoning Emergency Department Visits in Florida Weiwei Chen 1
&
Timothy F. Page 2 & Wenjie Sun 3
Received: 15 May 2020 / Revised: 12 October 2020 / Accepted: 14 October 2020 # W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute 2020
Abstract Objectives To examine the role of individual race/ethnicity and community racial/ethnic mix on the type of opioid-related emergency department (ED) visits in Florida. Methods The study identifies opioid-related ED visits that involved heroin, non-heroin poisoning, and opioid use disorder (OUD) from the first quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2018 in Florida. The trend is depicted by patients’ race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic mix of residential communities. Combined with zip code tabulation area data, the study builds a multilevel model and examines how individual-level and community-level covariates relate to the type of opioid-related ED visits. Results While opioid-related ED visit rate was highest among white patients, majority-black communities caught up with the majority-white communities in the visit rate. The multilevel model results suggest that the likelihood of an opioid-related ED visit involving heroin, non-heroin poisoning, or OUD differed by patient race/ethnicity as well as community racial/ethnic mix. Opioid-related ED visits among minority patients were more likely to involve non-heroin poisoning than non-Hispanic white patients, whereas patients from minority-dominant communities were more likely to involve heroin poisoning than from majority-white communities. However, community racial/ethnic mix was not significantly or less significantly associated with the likelihood of involving OUD ED visits. Conclusions The study highlights the heterogeneity of the opioid overdose problem across racial/ethnic patients and communities with different racial/ethnic mixes. Future policies may consider the effect of living in different racial/ethnic mixed communities in addition to individual race/ethnicity. Keywords Racial/ethnic disparities . Community racial/ethnic mix . Heroin . Opioid use disorder
The current opioid epidemic has often been portrayed as a white problem [1]. Opioid overdose deaths were overwhelmingly
* Weiwei Chen [email protected] Timothy F. Page [email protected] Wenjie Sun [email protected] 1
Department of Economics, Finance and Quantitative Analysis, Michael J. Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University, 560 Parliament Garden Way, Kennesaw, GA 30144, USA
2
Department of Management, H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College Ave, Davie, FL 33314, USA
3
Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199, USA
dominated by non-Hispanic white people [2]. Such a racial/ ethnic disparity has been linked to providers’ biased prescribing behavior across racial/ethnic groups. Physicians were found less likely to prescribe pain medicine for nonwhite patients [3–5]. This
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