New AHRQ Report Shows Sharp Rise Among Women for Opioid-Related Hospital Stays

New AHRQ Report Shows Sharp Rise Among Women for Opioid-Related Hospital Stays

New AHRQ Report Shows Sharp Rise Among Women for Opioid-Related Hospital Stays

A new Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Brief based on AHRQ’s Fast Stats data shows that between 2005 and 2014, the national rate of opioid-related hospital stays increased substantially more for women than for men. Stays involving opioid pain relievers or heroin increased 75 percent for women and 55 percent for men during the same timeframe. By 2014, the rates of opioid-related hospitalizations for men and women were virtually identical (about 225 per 100,000 people). A new AHRQ infographic illustrates the States in which opioid-related hospitalization rates were higher among women than men in 2014.

The data are from Fast Stats, the Agency’s online tool that offers national and state-specific data on hospital stays and emergency department visits, including data by age, gender, community-level income and urban versus rural residency.

AHRQ is supporting the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) mission in combatting the opioid crisis by providing data on opioids and awarding grants to study how best to deliver Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid abuse in rural areas. A blog by AHRQ Senior Researcher Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D., provides more detail about how AHRQ data supports federal efforts to stop the opioids crisis.