Opioid-related hospital visits in the US rose 99% and inpatient stays increased 64% in less than a decade, according to government data released on Tuesday. Each day, US hospitals received 3,500 people for opioid-related issues in 2014, compared with 1,800 in 2005, a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reveals.
But that national increase is not equally felt in hospitals across the country – the data also reveals vast state-to-state differences in the opioid epidemic.
Climbing in Georgia, falling in Kansas
Of the 43 states where data was available, Georgia saw the highest increase in opioid related inpatient stays between 2009 and 2014. Hospital stays increased 100% in Georgia, compared with an average rise of 24% across the country. In Kansas, Maryland, Illinois and Louisiana, inpatient stays fell across the six-year time period.
When looking at ER visits rather than inpatient stays, the geographic differences were again vast – increasing 106% in Ohio and falling 16% in Iowa between 2009 and 2015.
More female patients
In most states, opioid-related hospital admissions are more common for women than for men. In Montana, for example, there were 264 inpatient stays for every 100,000 women while there were 163 stays per 100,000 men.
But in some states, men are more affected by the opioid epidemic. This is most noticeable in New York, where men are almost twice as likely as women to stay in hospital.
Rising, regardless of age
Across all age groups, inpatient stays and ER visits have risen since 2005. People ages 25-44 remain the most likely to be seen in hospital for an opioid-related issue.
For other age groups, the numbers are low, but no less shocking. In 2014, there were approximately 340 ER visits for infants under the age of one suffering from opioid-related issues, up from approximately 253 visits in 2005.
You can search the data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality using the table below.
