Other Titles
Nurse-Based Strategies to Close the Gap in Care of Women with Opioid Use Disorder [Poster Title]
Abstract
In trying to achieve gender equity in society there continues to be a shortfall with the burden of childcare, household duties, generational caregiving, working, and other duties still being unequally placed on women. The article by Cerrato & Cifre (2018) highlighted this in that women spend an average of 38 hours per week caring for children as opposed to men who were noted to spend an average of 23. This is irrespective of the fact that women continue to strengthen in numbers in the workforce these hours remain unchanged. A man, in contrast, will neither see nor realize any change or decrease in salary or work status, unlike a woman, as the assumption remains these duties are predominantly the responsibility of women and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
In the US alone the year 2018 saw 4.8 million women misuse prescription opioids and the modalities by which abused opioids were procured noted that their doctor gave 38.7% of women a prescription. The choice of opioid also reveals the variety used by women including 10.5% choosing oxycodone, 9.9% used fentanyl, and interestingly buprenorphine came in as the prescription opioid most likely to be misused by women 13 and older (Henson & Osbourne, 2019). There are also physiological differences in the effects that opioids exert on women versus men. These factors coupled with the fact that research shows that the onset of pain relief from opioids is slower in women than men can lead to taking higher than prescribed amounts of opioids to achieve the same level of pain relief as men (Women & Opioids, n.d.). The combination of these factors coupled with many other gender-specific opioid use disorders amongst women resulted in a 400% increase in overdose deaths from prescription painkillers among women between 1999 and 2010 compared to a 237% increase in men during that same period (Bustamante, 2023). In the article by Fugh-Berman and Fugh-Berman (2021).
The ability of the nursing profession to make a significant impact represents a role and a need still unfilled in its infancy which is a call to action for nursing. Nursing could facilitate OUD treatment for women by forming nurse follow-up teams that would reach out to patients and assess during various points of treatment to target and provide resources to help with maintaining treatment for OUD in female patients. The screening and identifying women at risk for relapses and overdose is in need of for nursing to positive impact
Notes
References:
Bustamante, J. (2023, January 1). Opioid Crisis Statistics [2023]: Prescription Opioid abuse. NCDAS. https://drugabusestatistics.org/opioid-epidemic/
Cerrato, J., & Cifré, E. (2018). Gender inequality in household chores and Work-Family conflict. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01330
Fugh-Berman, A., MD, & Fugh-Berman, A., MD. (2021, May 7). Women & the Opioid Epidemic | National Women’s Health Network. National Women’s Health Network |. https://nwhn.org/women-opioid-epidemic/
Henson, P., MD, & Osbourne, N. (2019, July 22). The effects of opioid abuse on women. American Addiction Centers. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/opiates/the-effects-of-opioid-abuse-on-women
Manubay, J. M., Davidson, J., Vosburg, S. K., Jones, J. D., Comer, S. D., & Sullivan, M. A. (2015). Sex differences among Opioid-Abusing patients with Chronic Pain in a clinical trial. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 9(1), 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1097/adm.0000000000000086
Opioid Use Disorder: Risks for women. (2022, October 13). Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/substance-abuse-chemical-dependency/opioid-use-disorder-risks-for-women
Sigma Membership
Eta Tau, Phi Beta
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Health Equity, Social Determinants of Health, Public and Community Health, DEI/BIPOC, Clinical Practice, Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, Opioid Use Disorder, Women
Recommended Citation
Scott-Fletcher, Bridget R.; Annapoorna, Mary; and El Hajj, Dana, "The Prevalence of Healthcare Inequity in the Treatment of Women with Opioid Use Disorder" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 19.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/posters_2025/19
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-19
The Prevalence of Healthcare Inequity in the Treatment of Women with Opioid Use Disorder
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
In trying to achieve gender equity in society there continues to be a shortfall with the burden of childcare, household duties, generational caregiving, working, and other duties still being unequally placed on women. The article by Cerrato & Cifre (2018) highlighted this in that women spend an average of 38 hours per week caring for children as opposed to men who were noted to spend an average of 23. This is irrespective of the fact that women continue to strengthen in numbers in the workforce these hours remain unchanged. A man, in contrast, will neither see nor realize any change or decrease in salary or work status, unlike a woman, as the assumption remains these duties are predominantly the responsibility of women and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
In the US alone the year 2018 saw 4.8 million women misuse prescription opioids and the modalities by which abused opioids were procured noted that their doctor gave 38.7% of women a prescription. The choice of opioid also reveals the variety used by women including 10.5% choosing oxycodone, 9.9% used fentanyl, and interestingly buprenorphine came in as the prescription opioid most likely to be misused by women 13 and older (Henson & Osbourne, 2019). There are also physiological differences in the effects that opioids exert on women versus men. These factors coupled with the fact that research shows that the onset of pain relief from opioids is slower in women than men can lead to taking higher than prescribed amounts of opioids to achieve the same level of pain relief as men (Women & Opioids, n.d.). The combination of these factors coupled with many other gender-specific opioid use disorders amongst women resulted in a 400% increase in overdose deaths from prescription painkillers among women between 1999 and 2010 compared to a 237% increase in men during that same period (Bustamante, 2023). In the article by Fugh-Berman and Fugh-Berman (2021).
The ability of the nursing profession to make a significant impact represents a role and a need still unfilled in its infancy which is a call to action for nursing. Nursing could facilitate OUD treatment for women by forming nurse follow-up teams that would reach out to patients and assess during various points of treatment to target and provide resources to help with maintaining treatment for OUD in female patients. The screening and identifying women at risk for relapses and overdose is in need of for nursing to positive impact
Description
This abstract serves as the setting for the theme "Respond" for this conference and refers to the need for nursing to respond to and take an active role addressing and remediating the health inequity that is seen in treatment of women with opioid use disorder (OUD).