Background: Most women are prescribed an opioid after hysterectomy. The goal of this study was to determine the association between initial opioid prescribing characteristics and chronic opioid use after hysterectomy.Methods: This study included women enrolled in a commercial health plan who had a hysterectomy between 1 July 2010 and 31 March 2015. We used trajectory models to define chronic opioid use as patients with the highest probability of having an opioid prescription filled during the 6 months post-surgery. A multivariable logistic regression was applied to examine the association between initial opioid dispensing (amount prescribed and duration of treatment) and chronic opioid use after adjusting for potential confounders.Results: A total of 693 of 50 127 (1.38%) opioid-naïve women met the criteria for chronic opioid use following hysterectomy. The baseline variables and initial opioid prescription characteristics predicted the pattern of long-term opioid use with moderate discrimination (c statistic = 0.70). Significant predictors of chronic opioid use included initial opioid daily dose (≥60 MME vs <40 MME, aOR: 1.43, 95% CI:

Background The use of psychotropic medications is not uncommon among patients with newly diagnosed cancer. However, the impact of psychotropic polypharmacy on healthcare utilization during the initial phase of cancer care is largely unknown. Methods We used a claims database to identify adults with incident breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers diagnosed during 2011–12. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as concurrent use of two or more psychotropic medication classes for at least 90 days. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify significant predictors of psychotropic polypharmacy. Multivariable Poisson and negative binomial regressions were used to assess the associations between psychotropic polypharmacy and healthcare utilization. Results Among 5604 patients included in the study, 52.6% had breast cancer, 30.6% had prostate cancer, 11.4% had colorectal cancer, and 5.5% had lung cancer. During the year following incident cancer diagnosis, psychotropic polypharmacy was reported in 7.4% of patients, with the highest prevalence among patients with lung cancer (14.4%). Compared with patients without psychotropic polypharmacy during the initial phase of care, patients with newly diagnosed cancer with psychotropic polypharmacy had a 30% higher rate of physician office visits, an 18% higher rate of hospitalization, and a 30% higher rate of outpatient visits. The rate of emergency room visits was similar between the two groups. Conclusion Psychotropic polypharmacy during the initial phase of cancer care was associated with significantly increased healthcare resource utilization, and the proportion of patients receiving psychotropic polypharmacy differed by type of cancer. Impact Findings emphasize the importance of evidence-based psychotropic prescribing and close surveillance of events causing increased healthcare utilization among patients with cancer receiving psychotropic polypharmacy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40801-019-0153-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: It is crucial to identify whether women with HER2positive (HER21) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are treated according to treatment guidelines and whether treatment disparities exist. This study examined guideline-concordant treatment among women with HER21 MBC and determined the magnitude of differences in treatment between those with positive and negative hormone receptor (HR) status using a nonlinear decomposition technique. Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted using the SEER-Medicare linked database. The study cohort consisted of women aged $66 years diagnosed with HER21 MBC in 2010 through 2013 (n5241). Guideline-concordant initial treatment after cancer diagnosis was defined based on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Breast Cancer. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify significant predictors of guideline-concordant treatment. A postregression decomposition was conducted to identify the magnitude of disparities in treatment by HR status. Results: Of 241 women included in the study, a total of 76.8% received guideline-concordant treatment. These women were significantly more likely to have positive HR status (P5.0298), have good performance status (P5.0009), and more oncology visits (P,.0001). With 1-year increments in age at cancer diagnosis, the likelihood of receiving guideline-concordant treatment reduced by 5% (P5.0356). The decomposition analysis revealed that 19.0% of the disparity in guideline-concordant treatment between women with positive and negative HR status was explained by differences in their characteristics. Enabling characteristics (marital status, income, and education) explained the highest (22.8%) proportion of the disparity. Conclusions: Nearly one-quarter of the study cohort did not receive guideline-concordant treatment. Our findings suggest opportunities to improve cancer care for elderly women with negative HR status who are unpartnered or have lower socioeconomic status. The high unexplained portion of the disparity by HR status can be due to patient treatment preferences, propensity to seek care, and organizational and physician-level characteristics that were not included in the study.

BACKGROUND: Psychotropic polypharmacy is not uncommon among cancer patients and may contribute to the increased direct health care cost burden in this population. OBJECTIVE: To estimate average direct health care costs in the year following cancer diagnosis among cancer patients receiving psychotropic polypharmacy compared with those without psychotropic polypharmacy, using a multivariable analysis framework.METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among patients aged 18 years and older diagnosed with the most commonly occurring cancers (breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal) in the United States during 2011-2012 using the deidentified Optum Clinformatics Data Mart commercial claims database. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as concurrent use of 2 or more psychotropic medications for at least 90 days. Direct health care costs in the year following cancer diagnosis were estimated as total medical payments made by the health plans and were derived from claims files. A generalized linear regression model with loglink function and gamma distribution was used to model average direct health care costs, controlling for baseline patient demographic and clinical covariates.