Racial, Ethnic, and Language-Based Inequities in Inpatient Opioid Prescribing by Diagnosis from Internal Medicine Services, a Retrospective Cohort Study
Table 3
Negative binomial regression analysis of daily opioid administration with results for language and race/ethnicity variables.
Covariate
Full cohort; average predicted daily opioid MME (95% confidence interval)
value
Top six frequent conditions; average predicted daily opioid MME (95% confidence interval)
value
Three pain conditions; average predicted daily opioid MME (95% confidence interval)
value
Language
Non-limited English proficiency
101 (91–111)
Ref
155 (129–182)
Ref
141 (129–154)
Ref
Limited English proficiency
66 (52–80)
<0.001
114 (85–144)
0.002
77 (58–96)
<0.001
Race/ethnicity
White
103 (94–112)
Ref
175 (142–207)
Ref
157 (138–175)
Ref
American Indian/Alaska Native
227 (110–344)
0.036
483 (322–644)
<0.001
141 (68–215)
0.687
Asian
59 (51–66)
<0.001
83 (64–102)
<0.001
108 (85–130)
<0.001
Black/African American
114 (95–134)
0.138
178 (137–219)
0.811
122 (100–144)
0.010
Latinx
89 (79–100)
0.006
137 (102–172)
0.020
126 (106–147)
0.033
Multi-race/ethnicity
81 (65–97)
0.005
129 (79–179)
0.059
111 (62–159)
0.075
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
85 (64–107)
0.091
149 (88–209)
0.387
68 (35–101)
<0.001
Other/unknown
105 (87–123)
0.798
188 (142–207)
0.628
106 (80–131)
0.001
MME, oral morphine milligram equivalent. Predicted population rates using average marginal effects. The models utilized complete case regression. For the regressions including the full cohort and the top 6 frequent conditions, the interaction term between race/ethnicity and LEP status was included because the likelihood ratio test was significant comparing the models with and without the interaction term. For the regression of top 3 pain conditions, the interaction between race/ethnicity and LEP was not included because the likelihood ratio test was nonsignificant.
