Read the original SCLS Tech Bits post from October 30, 2017, “How bad is the Opioid epidemic in my county?”
The Opioid crisis has been declared a public health emergency. As a parent, I wanted to find data on how serious the Opioid epidemic is in Green County where we live. It turns out that the Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health (WISH) recently published a new Opioid Module dhs.wisconsin.gov/wish/opioid/index.htm on Wisconsin drug overdose mortality and morbidity that includes county data.
Developed by the Wisconsin Office of Health Informatics and the Injury Prevention program, the Opioid Module includes two query options:
- Hospital encounters query (dhs.wisconsin.gov/wish/opioid/hospital-encounters.htm): Opioid-related inpatient hospital stays and emergency department visits among Wisconsin residents from 2005-2016.
- Drug overdose deaths query (dhs.wisconsin.gov/wish/opioid/mortality.htm):Poisoning deaths from 2000-2016.
For each module, you first select the type of data you are interested in including:
- Type and characteristics of measure (e.g., number of deaths involving prescription opioids)
- Geographic area (NOTE: multiple counties can be selected)
- Time period (years, quarters)
- Age, sex, race, and ethnicity.
You then define the row and column output you want to see. Here is a Jing video of a sample query I ran for Opioid-Related Hospital Encounters in Green County: screencast.com/t/LlCn2sVPigAp. When the values are less than 5, they show up as an “X” to comply with Wisconsin vital records data privacy guidelines. Unfortunately, there is not a direct export to excel but copy/paste works with some reformatting.
Be sure to check out the other WISH modules on births, deaths, cancer, FoodShare usage, and more: dhs.wisconsin.gov/stats/index.htm.
Posted by Jody Hoesly, SCLS Data Services Consultant.