Social isolation, residential stability, and opioid use disorder among older Medicare beneficiaries: Metropolitan and non-metropolitan county comparison

Tse Chuan Yang, Carla Shoff, Seulki Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

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 non-metropolitan 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 non-metropolitan 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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number114605
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume292
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Medicare
  • Metropolitan/non-metropolitan
  • Opioid use disorder
  • Residential stability
  • Social isolation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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