Socially, Economically Disadvantaged Communities Lack Access to Buprenorphine

FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Restricted buprenorphine dispensing was most pronounced in socially and economically disadvantaged communities, according to a study published in the September issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports.

Kyle J. Moon, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues conducted a U.S. telephone audit to measure restricted buprenorphine dispensing in community pharmacies, defined as the inability to fill a buprenorphine prescription requested by a "secret shopper." The analysis included 858 pharmacies surveyed in 473 counties.

The researchers found that pharmacies in the most ethnically segregated and economically deprived counties had 2.66 times higher odds of restricting buprenorphine dispensing versus pharmacies in the most privileged counties. Higher odds of restricting buprenorphine dispensing were also seen in pharmacies in counties with high racialized economic segregation (quintile 2 and 3; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.09 [95 percent confidence interval (CI), 1.7 to 5.59] and 2.11 [95 percent CI, 1.17 to 3.98], respectively). Similar patterns were seen for economic segregation (aOR, 2.18; 95 percent CI, 1.21 to 3.99). However, the pattern did not hold for ethnic (aOR, 0.59; 95 percent CI, 0.34 to 1.05) or racial (aOR, 0.61; 95 percent CI, 0.35 to 1.07) segregation alone.

"These findings have critical policy implications, in that interventions must aim to strengthen capacity in both prescribing and dispensing to achieve equitable access to treatment," the authors write. "Against the backdrop of a worsening overdose crisis, multilevel interventions are sorely needed to address persistent barriers to medications for opioid use disorder and advance pharmacoequity."

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text