from Fair Health
The news has been filled with stories of
deaths from abuse and dependence on
opioid medications. A paper prepared
by the independent, nonprofit
organization, Fair Health, tells the depth
of this epidemic—that it affects nearly
all age groups in both rural and urban
communities from thirteen to eighty.
The paper analyzed data from more
than twenty-three million privately billed
healthcare claims. Among the findings:
Opioid dependence diagnosis occurred
more frequently among males than
females in all age groups, but the gap
narrowed over the age of fifty—showing
males with fifty-five percent of opioid
diagnoses and females forty-five
percent. In rural areas, opioid abuse
and dependence diagnoses were more
concentrated on middle-aged people.