Background: Rates of drug overdose deaths increased by 5.5% per year between 1999 and 2015 in the United States (1). These dramatic increases have largely been attributed to opioid-related deaths in non-Hispanic white (NHW) persons (2), with natural and semisynthetic (primarily prescription) opioids and heroin each contributing to one fourth of these deaths (1). Increases in rates of drug overdose deaths were also recently reported for non-Hispanic black (NHB) and Hispanic persons (1); however, these increases have received less attention and whether these deaths were due to opioids is unclear.
Objective: To inform prevention efforts by using age- and sex-specific ...
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Author, Article and Disclosure Information
National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland (M.S.S., N.D.F., A.B.)
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland (D.T.)
Acknowledgment: The authors thank Mr. Michael Curry (Information Management Services) for programming support.
Financial Support: By the Intramural Program of the National Cancer Institute.
Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M17-1812.
Reproducible Research Statement:Study protocol: Not available. Statistical code and data set: Available at https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D77.
This article was published at Annals.org on 5 December 2017.
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