Social Isolation, Residential Stability, and Opioid Use Disorder among Older Medicare Beneficiaries: Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan County Comparison

Authors

Tse-Chuan Yang, University of Texas Medical BranchFollow
Carla Shoff, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Baltimore, MDFollow
Seulki Kim, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow

Date of this Version

1-2022

Citation

Social Science & Medicine 292 (January 2022), 114605.

doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114605

Comments

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. Used by permission.

Abstract

Research has shown that the prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) may rise substantially as society ages, but this issue receives the least attention in the literature. To address this gap, this study utilizes county-level data from multiple data sources (1) to investigate whether social isolation is associated with OUD prevalence among older Medicare beneficiaries, (2) to examine whether and how residential stability moderates the association between social isolation and OUD prevalence in US counties, and (3) to determine if there are any differences in these associations between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. The results show that social isolation is a significant factor for county-level OUD prevalence, regardless of metropolitan status. In addition, counties with high residential stability have low prevalence of OUD among older adults and this association is stronger in metropolitan than in nonmetropolitan counties. Nonetheless, high levels of residential stability reinforce the positive relationship between social isolation and OUD prevalence. As a result, when developing policies and interventions aimed at reducing OUD among older adults, place of residence must be taken into account.