Social Determinants of Health and County Population Rates of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays

Increased use of prescription and nonprescription opioids in the past 20 years has led to substantial increases in opioid-related deaths and hospitalizations.

Social Determinants of Health and County Population Rates of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays, a statistical brief from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project describe how counties that have high versus low population rates of opioid-related hospital use differ with regard to social determinants of heath (SDOH).

Highlights:

• Among 2,214 counties (70.5 percent of all U.S. counties in 2016), 8.7 percent had population rates of opioid-related inpatient stays and emergency department (ED) visits that were high and 48.4 percent had rates that were low relative to the national average.
• Counties with high population rates of opioid-related inpatient stays and ED visits had the following social determinants of heath characteristics:
  • Social, educational, and economic: lower population percentage of Hispanics/Latinos, higher percentage of economically disadvantaged residents, lower percentage of the population with religious congregation affiliation, and higher crime rates.
  • Physical infrastructure: more likely to be urban, more densely populated, and more racially segregated.
  • Healthcare: higher population rate of healthcare providers, greater pharmacy density, higher population percentage of Medicaid enrollment, more likely to have opioid-related State policies (e.g., permitting naloxone prescriptions for third parties), higher opioid prescribing rates, and higher State opioid mortality rates.

Select to access Social Determinants of Health and County Population Rates of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays