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Analgesic overdose fatalities more likely in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Fatalities from analgesic overdose occur more often in economically disadvantaged communities with a high prevalence of divorce and single-parent homes compared with non-overdose unintentional fatalities, according to a press release.

However, when compared with the types of neighborhoods where heroin overdose deaths typically occur, deaths from analgesic overdose occur in higher-income, less unequal and less fragmented neighborhoods, researchers wrote.

Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted a case-control study comparing unintentional analgesic opioid overdose fatalities (n=447), unintentional non-overdose fatalities (n=3,436) and heroin overdose fatalities (n=2,530) that occurred between 2000 and 2006 in 59 New York City neighborhoods.

Analgesic overdose deaths were less likely to occur in higher-income neighborhoods (OR=0.82; 95% CI, 0.7-0.96) vs. non-overdose unintentional deaths but more likely than heroin overdose fatalities (OR=1.31; 95% CI, 1.12-1.54). In neighborhoods with a higher prevalence of divorced and single-parent homes, analgesic overdose fatalities were more likely (OR=1.35; 95% CI, 1.05-1.72) to occur than non-overdose unintentional fatalities. However, they also occurred in neighborhoods with less divorce and single-parent homes than heroin fatalities (OR=0.71; 95% CI, 0.55-0.92), according to researchers.

"Given the increasing rates of analgesic overdose fatalities and the systematic distribution of overdose risk across urban neighborhoods, there is a critical need for research that identifies the particular neighborhood mechanisms that may distinguish the risk of analgesic overdose from that of illicit drug overdose," Cerdá said in a press release.