Objectives We examined prevalence of major medical conditions and extent of disease burden among patients with and without substance use disorders (SUDs) in an integrated healthcare system serving 3.8 million members. Methods Medical conditions and SUDs were extracted from electronic health records in 2010. Patients with SUDs (n = 45,461; alcohol, amphetamine, barbiturate, cocaine, hallucinogen, and opioid) and demographically matched patients without SUDs (n = 45,461) were compared on the prevalence of nineteen major medical conditions. Disease burden was measured as a function of 10-year mortality risk using the Charlson Comorbidity Index. P-values were adjusted using Hochberg's correction for multiple-inference testing within each medical condition category. Results The most frequently diagnosed SUDs in 2010 were alcohol (57.6%), cannabis (14.9%), and opioid (12.9%). Patients with these SUDs had higher prevalence of major medical conditions than non-SUD patients (alcohol use disorders—85.3% vs. 55.3%; cannabis use disorders—41.9% vs. 23.0%; and opioid use disorders—44.9% vs. 26.1%; all p < .001). Patients with these SUDs also had higher disease burden than non-SUD patients; patients with opioid use disorders (M = 0.48; SE = 1.46) had particularly high disease burden (M = 0.23; SE = 0.09), (p < .001). Conclusions Common SUDs, particularly opioid use disorders, are associated with substantial disease burden for privately insured individuals without significant impediments to care. This signals the need to explore the full impact SUDs have on the course and outcome of prevalent conditions and initiate enhanced service engagement strategies to improve disease burden.

ObjectiveThis paper used data from a study of pediatric primary care provider (PCP) screening practices to examine barriers to and facilitators of adolescent alcohol and other drug (AOD) screening in pediatric primary care.MethodsA web-based survey (N = 437) was used to examine the influence of PCP factors (attitudes and knowledge, training, self-efficacy, comfort with alcohol and drug issues); patient characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, comorbidities and risk factors); and organizational factors (screening barriers, staffing resources, confidentiality issues) on AOD screening practices. Self-reported and electronic medical record (EMR)-recorded screening rates were also assessed.ResultsMore PCPs felt unprepared to diagnose alcohol abuse (42%) and other drug abuse (56%) than depression (29%) (p < 0.001). Overall, PCPs were more likely to screen boys than girls, and male PCPs were even more likely than female PCPs to screen boys (23% versus 6%, p < 0.0001). Having more time and having other staff screen and review results were identified as potential screening facilitators. Self-reported screening rates were significantly higher than actual (EMR-recorded) rates for all substances. Feeling prepared to diagnose AOD problems predicted higher self-reported screening rates (OR = 1.02, p <0.001), and identifying time constraints as a barrier to screening predicted lower self-reported screening rates (OR = 0.91, p < 0.001). Higher average panel age was a significant predictor of increased EMR-recorded screening rates (OR = 1.11, p < 0.001).ConclusionsOrganizational factors, lack of training, and discomfort with AOD screening may impact adolescent substance-abuse screening and intervention, but organizational approaches (e.g., EMR tools and workflow) may matter more than PCP or patient factors in determining screening.

Background Treatment for alcohol disorders has traditionally been abstinence-oriented, but evaluating the merits of a low-risk drinking outcome as part of a primary treatment endpoint is a timely issue given new pertinent regulatory guidelines. This study explores a posttreatment low-risk drinking outcome as a predictor of future drinking and problem severity outcomes among individuals with alcohol use disorders in a large private, not for profit, integrated care health plan. Methods Study participants include adults with alcohol use disorders at 6 months (N = 995) from 2 large randomized studies. Logistic regression models were used to explore the relationship between past 30-day drinker status at 6 months posttreatment (abstinent [66%], low-risk drinking [14%] defined as nonabstinence and no days of 5+ drinking, and heavy drinking [20%] defined as 1 or more days of 5 + drinking) and 12-month outcomes, including drinking status and Addiction Severity Index measures of medical, psychiatric, family/social, and employment severity, controlling for baseline covariates. Results Compared to heavy drinkers, abstinent individuals and low-risk drinkers at 6 months were more likely to be abstinent or low-risk drinkers at 12 months (adj. ORs = 16.7 and 3.4, respectively; p < 0.0001); though, the benefit of abstinence was much greater than that of low-risk drinking. Compared to heavy drinkers, abstinent and low-risk drinkers were similarly associated with lower 12-month psychiatric severity (adj. ORs = 1.8 and 2.2, respectively, p < 0.01) and family/social problem severity (adj. OR = 2.2; p < 0.01). While abstinent individuals had lower 12-month employment severity than heavy drinkers (adj. OR = 1.9; p < 0.01), low-risk drinkers did not differ from heavy drinkers. The drinking groups did not differ on 12-month medical problem severity. Conclusions Compared to heavy drinkers, low-risk drinkers did as well as abstinent individuals for many of the outcomes important to health and addiction policy. Thus, an endpoint that allows low-risk drinking may be tenable for individuals undergoing alcohol specialty treatment.

IMPORTANCE Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with increased incidence of several medical conditions, but few nonveteran, population-based studies have assessed levels of alcohol use across medical conditions. OBJECTIVE To examine associations between medical conditions and alcohol consumption levels in a population-based sample of primary care patients using electronic health record data. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis cross-sectional study used separate multinomial logistic regression models to estimate adjusted associations between 26 medical conditions and alcohol consumption levels in a sample of 2 720 231 adult primary care patients screened for unhealthy drinking between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017, then only among those reporting alcohol use. The study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a large, integrated health care delivery system that incorporated alcohol screening into its adult primary care workflow. Data were analyzed from June 29, 2018, to February 7, 2020. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe main outcome was level of alcohol use, classified as no reported use, low-risk use, exceeding daily limits only, exceeding weekly limits only, or exceeding daily and weekly limits, per National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism guidelines. Other measures included sociodemographic, body mass index, smoking, inpatient and emergency department use, and a dichotomous indicator for the presence of 26 medical conditions in the year prior to the alcohol screening identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes. RESULTS Among the 2 720 231 included patients, 1 439 361 (52.9%) were female, 1 308 659 (48.1%) were white, and 883 276 (32.5%) were aged 18 to 34 years. Patients with any of the conditions (except injury or poisoning) had lower odds of drinking at low-risk and unhealthy levels relative to no reported use compared with those without the condition. Among 861 427 patients reporting alcohol use, patients with diabetes (odds ratio [