Observational studyJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2025
Buprenorphine prescribing practices for older adults in 2019 and 2020.
Observational study in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Medications for opioid use disorder in traditional medicare beneficiaries: associations with age.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOpioid use disorder (OUD) prevalence has increased threefold among Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older (hereafter "older adults") since 2013, with a prevalence of 15.7 per 1000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2018. Yet, access to treatment that addresses the needs of older adults with OUD is limited, including patterns of buprenorphine prescribing to older adults. Therefore, we sought to describe buprenorphine treatment patterns among older adults and prescribing clinician specialties.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective observational study using 2019-2020 IQVIA Real World Data-Longitudinal Prescriptions. High-prescribing clinicians are those who prescribed buprenorphine to >15 unique older adults within a calendar year. We used T-test and chi-square tests to compare characteristics associated with differences in prescribing.
resultsAmong 26,202 clinicians prescribing buprenorphine to 67,921 unique older adults, 1232 (5%) prescribed to more than 15 older adults (mean 28.1, SD = 23.6), corresponding to buprenorphine prescribing for 24,672 (36%) older adults. Among older adults dispensed buprenorphine, the majority (58%) were 66-70 years of age and male (54%). Individuals older than 70 years (44%) and males (51%) were slightly more common among high prescribers than non-high-prescribing clinicians (41% and 49%, respectively). Primary care clinicians (42%) and advance practice providers (APPs) (29%) were the most common specialties prescribing buprenorphine. Most (87%) buprenorphine prescribers were in urban counties; with a slightly higher percentage of high-prescribing clinicians in urban counties (91%).
conclusionsA relatively small subset of clinicians prescribes most buprenorphine to older adults. This work provides evidence of gaps in care delivery. Scalable systems-level interventions should be developed and tested to improve treatment availability mindful of existing clinical infrastructure.
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