Opioid-Related Hospital Stays Among Women in the United States, 2016

The opioid epidemic is a national crisis, but research suggests that some subgroups of the population, such as women, may be more affected than other groups. For example, compared with men, women are more likely to be prescribed painkillers and are likely to be prescribed them in higher doses and to become dependent on them more quickly.1,2 The rate of opioid-related hospitalizations3 and deaths4 has been increasing faster in recent years among women than men. Indeed, in most states in 2014, women had higher opioid-related hospitalization rates than men.5

Among women, some subgroups may be more severely affected by the opioid crisis than others. Substantial differences in opioid use exist based on characteristics of women such as age, race/ethnicity, income, payer, and geography. For example, compared with Black and Hispanic women, White women are more likely to have long-term use of prescription opioids and are likely to have higher rates of drug overdose deaths involving prescription or illegal opioids.6,7 Women aged 65 years and older have a higher prevalence of long-term prescription opioid use for noncancer pain than do women under age 65 years.8 Even within age groups, differences may exist. For instance, among women of reproductive age (15-44 years), prescription opioid use is higher among those with Medicaid than among those with private insurance.9

This Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Brief presents statistics on opioid-related hospitalizations among women aged 15 years and older using the 2016 National Inpatient Sample (NIS). The distribution of opioid-related stays by select patient and hospitalization characteristics is presented and contrasted with the distribution for non-opioid-related stays. The types of opioid diagnoses during hospitalization are also provided for select patient characteristics. Finally, rates of opioid-related stays are presented by patient characteristics. Differences greater than 10 percent between estimates are noted in the text.