Asthma is common among the opioid-dependent patient population, according to research presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Feb. 22 to 25, in San Francisco.
For the study, researchers compared the national prevalence of asthma to asthma prevalence among opioid-dependent patients. They also analyzed secondary data of opioid-dependent patients, aged 18 to 79 years at Kings County Hospital Center in New York City between 2013 and 2017.
Researchers found that while the national prevalence of asthma is 8.3 percent, according to the CDC, the prevalence among opioid-dependent patients is 17.2 percent.
Additionally, they found that women are more likely to have asthma according to national estimates — 9.7 percent versus 6.9 percent of men. Twenty-five percent of opioid-dependent women also had asthma.