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

Hospitalizations involving opioid pain relievers and heroin increased 75 percent for women between 2005 and 2014, a jump that significantly outpaced the 55 percent increase among men, according to a new statistical brief from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. By 2014, the rates of opioid-related hospitalizations for men and women were virtually identical (about 225 per 100,000 people). Access a new AHRQ infographic (shown here) that 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. Access AHRQ’s press release on the report as well as a blog by Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D., a senior researcher at AHRQ.