Rate of opioid-related Emergency Department visits rose by 72% in 2017

News 100 redBy Staff

June 20th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Community Development Halton researches and collects data that is relevant to the social well being of the community and publishes it as a “community lens”.

Data on the Opioid Crisis Canada is facing appears in the most recent Community Lens which we have presented below.

Canada is facing a national opioid crisis. The growing number of overdoses and deaths caused by opioids, including fentanyl, is a public health emergency. In 2017, there were over 4,000 deaths or approximately 11 lives lost each day because of opioid overdoses.

According to Statistics Canada, life expectancy at birth has stopped rising for the first time in over four decades as a result of the opioid crisis.

Opiod emerg visitsIn Ontario, the rate of opioid-related Emergency Department (ED) visits has been rising since 2005. Between 2015 and 2016, the rate increased by 20%. It rose by 72% the following year to 54.6 visits per 100,000 persons.

While the rate of opioid-related ED visits is lower in Halton than Ontario, the Halton rates have been following the same upward trend as the province. Between 2016 and 2017, the Halton rate of opioid-related ED visits went up by over 34% to 30 visits per 100,000 persons.

Opiod Death rateOpiod death age and sexThere has also been an increase in hospitalizations and deaths due to opioid overdose. In Ontario, over 2,100 hospitalization for opioid overdose and 1,200 apparent opioid-related deaths occurred in 2017. The opioid overdose death rate in Ontario rose from 3.5 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2005 to 8.9 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2017.

 

Related news story:

Find the  fentanyl.

 

 

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.