CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 124Opioid Use Disorder TreatmentPain Management and Opioid UseAnesthesia and Pain Management

Outpatient opioid prescriptions for children and opioid-related adverse events.

Open access
Chung, Cecilia P., Callahan, S. Todd, Cooper, William O., Dupont, William D., Murray, Katherine T., Franklin, Andrew D., Hall, Kathi, Dudley, Judith A. +2 more·2018·PEDIATRICS
DOI 10.1542/peds.2017-2156PMC PMC6072590
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Little is known about opioid prescribing for children without severe conditions. We studied the prevalence of and indications for outpatient opioid prescriptions and the incidence of opioid-related adverse events in this population. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study between 1999 and 2014 included Tennessee Medicaid children and adolescents aged 2 to 17 without major chronic diseases, prolonged hospitalization, institutional residence, or evidence of a substance use disorder. We estimated the annual prevalence of outpatient opioid prescriptions and incidence of opioid-related adverse events, defined as an emergency department visit, hospitalization, or death related to an opioid adverse effect. RESULTS: There were 1 362 503 outpatient opioid prescriptions; the annual mean prevalence of opioid prescriptions was 15.0%. The most common opioid indications were dental procedures (31.1% prescriptions), outpatient procedure and/or surgery (25.1%), trauma (18.1%), and infections (16.5%). There were 437 cases of opioid-related adverse events confirmed by medical record review; 88.6% were related to the child's prescription and 71.2% had no recorded evidence of deviation from the prescribed regimen. The cumulative incidence of opioid-related adverse events was 38.3 of 100 000 prescriptions. Adverse events increased with age (incidence rate ratio = 2.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.67-2.96; 12-17 vs 2-5 years of age) and higher opioid doses (incidence rate ratio = 1.86 [1.45-2.39]; upper versus lower dose tertiles). CONCLUSIONS: Children without severe conditions enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid frequently filled outpatient opioid prescriptions for acute, self-limited conditions. One of every 2611 study opioid prescriptions was followed by an opioid-related adverse event (71.2% of which were related to therapeutic use of the prescribed opioid).

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1542/peds.2017-2156

Cites

43 of 43 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Chung, C. P., Callahan, S. T., Cooper, W. O., Dupont, W. D., Murray, K. T., Franklin, A. D., Hall, K., Dudley, J. A., Stein, C. M., & Ray, W. A.
Affiliations
  • Departments of Medicine,
  • Pediatrics and Genetics (US)
  • Biostatistics, and
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • Health Policy,
ORCID
Venue
PEDIATRICS
Publisher
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Published
2018-08-01
Volume
142
Issue
2
ISSN
  • 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-4275
DOI
10.1542/peds.2017-2156
PMC
PMC6072590
OpenAlex
W2883918434
Cited by
124
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 3
FWCI
18.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (K23AR064768)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD074584)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Anesthesia and Pain Management
Keywords
opioid prescribing, children, adolescents, opioid side effects, outpatient prescriptions, dental treatment, opioid dose, Medicaid, emergency department visits, hospitalization, opioid overdose
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Analgesics, Opioid, Child, Child, Preschool, Emergency Service, Hospital, Female, Humans, Male, Medicaid, Opioid-Related Disorders, Outpatients, Drug Prescriptions, Retrospective Studies, Tennessee, United States, Cohort Studies

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review