Risk of an Opioid-Related Emergency Department Visit or Hospitalization Among Older Breast, Colorectal, Lung, and Prostate Cancer Survivors

Objective: To assess whether long-term cancer survivors (>5 years after diagnosis) are at an increased risk of experiencing an opioid-related emergency department (ED) visit or hospitalization compared with persons without cancer. Methods: A 1:1 matched retrospective cohort study was performed using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End ResultseMedicare linked data sets. The analysis was conducted from October 2020 to December 2020 in persons who lived 5 years or more after a breast, colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer diagnosis matched to noncancer controls on the basis of age, sex, race, pain conditions, and previous opioid use. Fine-Gray regression models were used to assess the relationship between cancer survivorship status and opioid-related ED visit or hospitalization. Results: The incidence of opioid-related ED visits and hospitalizations was 51.2 (95% CI, 43.5 to 59.8) and 62.2 (95% CI, 53.4 to 72.1) per 100,000 person-years among cancer survivors and matched noncancer controls, respectively. No significant association was observed between survivorship and opioid-related adverse event among opioid naive (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.61 to 1.02) and nonnaive (hazard ratio, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.84 to 1.89) cohorts. Conclusion: Cancer survivors and noncancer controls had a similar risk of an ED visit or inpatient admission. Guidelines and policies should promote nonopioid pain management approaches especially to opioid non-naive older adults, a population at high risk for an opioid-related ED visit or hospitalization.

Automated summary

This study found that long-term cancer survivors are not at an increased risk of opioid-related emergency department visits or hospitalizations compared to persons without cancer. Guidelines and policies should focus on promoting non-opioid pain management approaches for older adults who have previous opioid use.