Do opioid prescriptions lead to fatal car crashes?

Michael R Betz, Lauren E Jones

Open access · greenAbstract read

In one paragraph

Article in American journal of health economics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 15% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.

Effects of state opioid prescribing laws on rates of fatal crashes in the USA.Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention · 2025
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Michael R BetzDepartment of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, 171A Campbell Hall, 1787 Neil Ave., Columbus, Ohio, 43201.

Lauren E JonesDepartment of Human Sciences and John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University, 115E Campbell Hall, 1787 Neil Ave., Columbus, Ohio, 43201.

The Ohio State University · US

Funding

Institute for Population ResearchP2CHD058484 · NICHD · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · PI HAYFORD, SARAH R · 2014 to 2023

$5.0M

NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD058484

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Widespread opioid misuse suggests a potential for increased fatal car crashes. However, opioid use may not necessarily lead to additional crashes if drivers respond to opioid prevalence by substituting away from more inebriating intoxicants like alcohol. Combining data on local opioid prescription rates and car crashes from the Fatality Analysis and Reporting System, we use two-way fixed effects models to test the direction of the association between prescribing intensity and crash fatalities between 2007 and 2016. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in the local prescription rate is associated with a 1 percent increase in the number of driver deaths in motor vehicle accidents. The association is robust to several model specifications, and isolated to drivers most affected by the opioid crisis: males and 25 to 34 year-olds.

Indexed as

Car crashesI12Impaired drivingOpioidsPrescription opioidsR41

Identifiers

PMID36910277

DOI10.1086/718511

PMCPMC9997667

OpenAlexW4200191336

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceTDM

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.