ArticleHealth affairs scholar2023
Massachusetts' opioid limit law associated with a reduction in postoperative opioid duration among orthopedic patients.
Article in Health affairs scholar, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Opioid-based versus opioid-sparing patient-controlled analgesia using ketorolac and nefopam after total knee arthroplasty: a randomized, double-blind, non-inferiority trial.Korean journal of anesthesiology · 2026Trial
- Opioid limiting law and opioid prescriptions among Medicaid-enrolled survivors of childhood cancer.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2026Article
- Postsurgical Opioid Prescribing Among Injured Workers in Washington State: 2017-2020 Trends and Policy Effects.American journal of industrial medicine · 2026Article
- Postoperative Opioid Prescribing Among Adults with Disabilities After a Medicare Opioid Limit Policy.Annals of surgery · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Postoperative orthopedic patients are a high-risk group for receiving long-duration, large-dosage opioid prescriptions. Rigorous evaluation of state opioid duration limit laws, enacted throughout the country in response to the opioid overdose epidemic, is lacking among this high-risk group. We took advantage of Massachusetts' early implementation of a 2016 7-day-limit law that occurred before other statewide or plan-wide policies took effect and used commercial insurance claims from 2014-2017 to study its association with postoperative opioid prescriptions greater than 7 days' duration among Massachusetts orthopedic patients relative to a New Hampshire control group. Our sample included 14 097 commercially insured, opioid-naive adults aged 18 years and older undergoing elective orthopedic procedures. We found that the Massachusetts 7-day limit was associated with an immediate 4.23 percentage point absolute reduction (95% CI, 8.12 to 0.33 percentage points) and a 33.27% relative reduction (95% CI, 55.36% to 11.19%) in the percentage of initial fills greater than 7 days in the Massachusetts relative to the control group. Seven-day-limit laws may be an important state-level tool to mitigate longer duration prescribing to high-risk postoperative populations.
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Registered trials
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