Identifying Prescription Number & Retail Cost Variances for MOUD Throughout Arizona Using Geographical Analyses

While accounting for more than 6025 nonfatal and 2350 fatal overdoses in Arizona between January 2021 to September 2022, Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is the most common relapsing disorder, characterized by addictive habits caused by the brain’s reward neurocircuits (Degenhardt et al., 2020). Access to Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) is necessary to prevent opioid dependence and possible overdoses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between MOUD prescription numbers, retail prescription costs, and individual drug costs in rural and urban Arizona areas. Heatmaps were created to illustrate the geographical relationships between the average changes overtime. The total averages between the prescription numbers and retail prescription costs over time yielded a moderate positive linear relationship between the two. The relationships between the number of MOUD prescriptions and the average retail costs per zip code allowed for the identification of the most and least affected zip codes in the state as well as rural areas. Twelve rural zip codes were identified as having high prescription numbers with high retail costs whereas the rest had either high prescription numbers with low retail costs, low prescription numbers with high retail costs, or low prescription numbers with low retail costs. Based on these findings, potential social and economic variables may be able to be identified in future studies.