ISDS Conference

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and deaths in Georgia. About 10.1% of deaths among adults in Georgia are linked to smoking related illnesses. Most first use of cigarettes occurs by age 18 (87%), with nearly all-first use by 26 years of age (98%). Although cigarette smoking has declined significantly since 1964, very large disparities in tobacco use remain across different sub- groups of the population. Multiple environmental, psychological, and social factors have been associated with tobacco use, including race and ethnicity, age, SES, educational accomplishment, gender, and sexual orientation. These factors within the social environment have a huge influence on motivation to begin and to continue using tobacco products for not just the individual but also certain community group within the population. Established in 2000, Georgia Tobacco Use Prevention Program (GTUPP) is a program designed to meet the overall goal of reducing the health and economic burden associated with tobacco use for all members of the community. By working with various partners, GTUPP plans, implements and evaluates policy, systems, and environmental changes designed to reduce tobacco- related illnesses and deaths. Best practice strategies focus on the following goals: preventing the initiation of tobacco use among young people; promoting quitting among young people and adults (e.g. Georgia Tobacco Quit Line (GTQL); eliminating exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke; and identifying and eliminating the disparities related to tobacco use among various population groups.

Objective

To analyze tobacco use in Georgia to influence policy, systems and environmental changes as tools to reduce its burden on health outcomes

There is a resurgence in the need to evaluate the economic burden of prescription drug hospitalizations in the United States. We used the Wisconsin 2014 Hospital Discharge data to examine opioid related hospitalization incidence and costs. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is frequently being used for as an intraoperative agent in anesthesia, and post-operative recovery in hospitals. According to a 2013 study, synthetic Fentanyl is 40 times more potent than heroin and other prescription opioids; the strength of Fentanyl leads to substantial hospitalizations risks. Since, 1990 it has been available with a prescription in various forms such as transdermal patches or lollipops for treatment of serious chronic pain, most often prescribed for late stage cancer patients. There have been reported fatal overdoses associated with misuse of prescription fentanyl. In Wisconsin number of total opioid related deaths increased by 51% from 2010 to 2014 with the number of deaths involving prescription opioids specifically increased by 23% and number of deaths involving heroin increased by 192%. We hypothesized that opioids prescription drugs, as a proxy of Fentanyl use, result in excessive health care costs.

Objective

In this paper we used hospital charges to assess costs incurred due to prescription drug/opioid hospitalizations