Overdose Data to Action: A qualitative analysis of funded activities tailored for women

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there was a 480 % increase in overdose deaths among all women from 1999 to 2021 (Jones et al., 2024). Women are uniquely impacted by substance use and overdose due to biological and cultural differences compared to men. CDC launched the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement in 2019 with the goal of helping to mitigate the opioid overdose crisis across the United States by supporting state and local health departments.

This study focused on a review of programmatic data submitted by OD2A jurisdictions that detail their prevention activities to identify how jurisdictions implemented activities to address the unique needs of women. The team conducted systematic content analysis using multiple rounds of coding.

Most activities were tailored for pregnant women or women who had recently given birth and focused on expanding capacity to meet their needs. The most common activities were capacity-building activities to enhance efforts to address overdose needs for women (specifically pregnant women), resource development/sharing, and implementation/evaluation of best or promising practices for women.

While it is important that activities tailored for pregnant women continue, our study showed a gap in activities tailored to other populations of women where the problem may be the greatest, such as women who are incarcerated, women who engage in sex work, and other female sub-populations. To address overdose rates in women, future efforts would benefit from continuing activities for pregnant women but also attempting to reach other at-risk female populations.