The Problem of Data Quality in Analyses of Opioid Regulation: The Case of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

Jill Horwitz, Corey S. Davis, Lynn S. McClelland, Rebecca S. Fordon and Ellen Meara

No 24947, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: States, which have the primary legal role in regulating the prescribing and dispensing of prescription medications, have created Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) to try to reduce inappropriate prescribing, dispensing, and related harm. Research assessing whether these interventions are effective has produced inconclusive and contradictory results. Here we examine whether different data sources may have contributed to the varying results. Specifically, we: 1) identify the decisions inherent in creating such a dataset; 2) discuss the public data sources used by researchers in previous work; 3) develop and apply a detailed research protocol to create a novel PDMP law dataset; and 4) to illustrate potential consequences of data choice, apply various data sources to analyze the relationship between PDMP laws and prescribing and dispensing of opioids among disabled Medicare beneficiaries. We find that our dates differ from those in existing datasets, sometimes by many years. The regression analyses generated a twofold difference in point estimates, as well as different signed estimates, depending on the data used. We conclude that the lack of transparency about data assembly in existing datasets, differences among dates by source, and the regression results raise concerns for PDMP researchers and policymakers.

JEL-codes: I1 I12 I18 K32 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-law
Note: EH LE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published as A later version of this paper was published as Jill Horwitz, Corey Davis, Lynn McClelland, Rebecca Fordon, and Ellen Meara, "The importance of data source in prescription drug monitoring program research," Health Services Research: online 02 September 2020

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