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Opioid-Related Emergency Department Visits Before And During Covid-19: Association With Community-Level Factors, Timothy F. Page, Weiwei Chen, François Sainfort, Julie A. Jacko
Opioid-Related Emergency Department Visits Before And During Covid-19: Association With Community-Level Factors, Timothy F. Page, Weiwei Chen, François Sainfort, Julie A. Jacko
HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine
Background
The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between community-level variables and emergency department (ED) visit rates before and during COVID-19. The focus was on opioid-related ED visits. Despite large declines in overall ED visits during COVID-19, opioid-related visits increased. While visits for avoidable conditions decreased, the opposite was true for opioid-related visits.
Methods
We combined data from Florida EDs with community-level variables from the 2020 American Community Survey. The outcome measures of the study were quarterly ZIP code tabulation-area-level ED visit rates for opioid-related ED visits as well as visit rates for all other causes. Associations …