(P-327) POPPY II Cohort Profile– a Population-based Linked Cohort Examining the Course and Outcomes of Prescription Opioid Use in NSW, Australia, 2003-2018

Location: Poster Gallery-Drug Utilization Research

Presenting Author(s)

NG

Natasa Gisev, PhD

University of New South Wales
Randwick, New South Wales, Australia

Co-Author(s)

SP

Sallie-Anne Pearson

Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia
TD

Timothy Dobbins

School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia, Australia
LB

Luke Buizen

Biostatistician
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia, Australia
TM

Tom Murphy

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia, Australia
AW

Andrew Wilson, MBBS PhD

Director
Menzies Centre for Health Policy, the University of Sydney, Northern Territory, Australia
FB

Fiona Blyth

School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health University of Sydney, Australia
AD

Adrian Dunlop

Hunter New England Local Health District, Australia
SL

Sarah Larney

Université de Montréal and Centre de Recherche du CHUM, Montreal, Canada, Quebec, Canada
DC

David Currow

Cancer Institute NSW, Australia
RM

Richard Mattick

University of New South Wales, Australia
LD

Louisa Degenhardt

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia, Australia

Background: Opioid prescribing and harms have increased in Australia in the past two decades. However, there is a lack of population-level evidence about the drivers of long-term prescribed opioid use, dependence, overdose and other harms. POPPY II is a retrospective population-based linked cohort developed to examine the course and outcomes of prescribed opioid use in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Objectives: To profile the POPPY II cohort with respect to sociodemographic and clinical health characteristics and patterns of opioid initiation.

Methods:

Methods: The POPPY II cohort includes all adult (≥18 years) residents in NSW who initiated prescribed opioids subsidised through Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for any period between 1st July 2003 and 31st December 2018. The cohort has been linked to nine other datasets containing information on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, health service use, and adverse outcomes. To account for changes in data capture for subsidised medicines over this time, a sub-cohort of those who initiated prescribed opioids between 1st July 2013 and 31st December 2018 was also constructed.

Results: There were 3,569,239 people in the overall cohort and 2,578,450 in the sub-cohort of those initiating opioids between 2013-2018. One in four people were aged ≥65 years at the time of opioid initiation (26.8% overall cohort; 26.0% sub-cohort) and half were female (52.7%; 52.4%). Approximately 5% had evidence of being treated for cancer in the year prior to opioid initiation (5.2%; 4.8%). Less than a third initiated on a strong opioid (22.2%; 29.6%) and the most commonly initiated opioid was paracetamol/codeine (61.3%; 57.9%).

Conclusions: The POPPY II study is the largest post-marketing surveillance study of prescribed opioids in Australia. Understanding the characteristics of the cohort will inform future work aimed at generating robust evidence of the course and outcomes of prescribed opioid use in the Australian community.