US Pharm. 2015;40(9):38.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, of 29.3 million outpatient visits in 2013, women made nearly 60% of visits for acute (32.4%) or chronic (28.5%) problems, and another 23.3% (17.7 million) for preventive care. Women aged 25 to 44 years made the most visits (24.3%) for preventive care, followed by those aged 15 to 24 (15.3%) and 45 to 64 (14.1%) years. Chronic conditions in women included hypertension (25.5%), depression (13.7%), hyperlipidemia (13%), diabetes (12.6%), arthritis (11.7%), and obesity (9.7%).
Blood Pressure: Irrespective of whether women were taking antihypertensives, 29.3% were hypertensive; of these, 44.7% had uncontrolled hypertension. Hypertensive women aged >75 years (57.8%) had the highest prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension. In visits to general medicine and Ob-Gyn clinics, 66.3% of women (nearly 39.7 million) had their initial blood pressure checked, and 42.3%, 34.7%, and 5.4% had normal, low, and high blood pressure, respectively.
Preventive Screening: In 2013, Pap smears were performed mostly in women aged 25 to 44 years (83.2%), followed by those aged 45 to 64 years (78.6%) and 21 to 24 years (74.6%). The incidence of Pap smears increased with progressive levels of education across all age groups, with the highest occurrences (86.1%) in women aged 25 to 44 years with some college education. In women who had mammograms on an outpatient basis, those aged 65 to 74 years topped the list (75.3%), followed by those aged 50 to 64 (71.4%), 40 to 49 (59.6%), and ≥75 years (56.5%).
Sensory Problems: One in five women aged >75 years had trouble seeing, even with glasses or contacts, compared with 13% of those aged 55 to 64 years. For progression of hearing loss, the prevalence of little hearing loss was double that of moderate loss (42.9% vs. 20.2%), which in turn was double that of deafness or a lot of hearing loss (9.5%) In 2013, 21.6%, 30.2%, and 16.5% of women suffered from severe headache/migraine, low back pain, and neck pain, respectively.
Screening/Preventive Therapy Prevalence: In 2013, 58.9% of women aged 50 to 75 years underwent colorectal testing, and 55.5% of women underwent colonoscopy. In 2013, 2% fewer women (61.8%) received a pneumococcal vaccination than in 2012, compared with 4.5% more women (58.1%) receiving an influenza vaccination. Of nonpharmacologic therapies provided to women, 20.4% involved some form of imaging for diagnostic or screening purposes. X-ray was most common, followed by ultrasound (7.6%), CT scan (5.2%), MRI (4%), and mammography (2.7%). Among the top treatments provided to women were psychotherapy (3.6%), wound care (2.7%), mental health counseling (2.7%), and physical therapy (2.3%).
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