Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Heroin and Opioid Analgesic Misuse in the United States, 2015-2019

Overview

Journal Drug Alcohol Depend

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2021 Sep 6

PMID 34488078

Citations 11

Authors

R Kathryn McHugh

Minh D Nguyen

Elena H Chartoff

Dawn E Sugarman

Shelly F Greenfield

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: Gender differences in the prevalence of opioid misuse continue to evolve and have not been well characterized in recent years. Our objective was to investigate gender differences in the prevalence of opioid misuse and use disorder in the US over the 5-year period from 2015 to 2019.

Methods: We used annual survey data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate gender differences in the prevalence of opioid misuse. We examined past-year opioid analgesic misuse initiation, opioid analgesic misuse, heroin use, opioid analgesic use disorder and heroin use disorder. Logistic regression models were used to test gender differences, adjusting for sociodemographic variables.

Results: In adjusted analyses, women had higher odds of having initiated opioid analgesic misuse in the past year compared to men. In contrast, men had higher odds of misuse of opioid analgesics, heroin use, and an opioid analgesic or heroin use disorder.

Conclusions: Although opioid misuse has historically been more prevalent in men, the gender difference in opioid analgesic misuse continues to narrow, with more women initiating misuse than men including higher rates of misuse in adolescent girls. Heroin use continues to be approximately twice as common in men as women.

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