Urban-rural variation in the socioeconomic determinants of opioid overdose.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prescription opioid overdose (POD) and heroin overdose (HOD) rates have quadrupled since 1999. Community-level socioeconomic characteristics are associated with opioid overdoses, but whether this varies by urbanicity is unknown.

Methods

In this serial cross-sectional study of zip codes in 17 states, 2002-2014 (n = 145,241 space-time units), we used hierarchical Bayesian Poisson space-time models to analyze the association between zip code-level socioeconomic features (poverty, unemployment, educational attainment, and income) and counts of POD or HOD hospital discharges. We tested multiplicative interactions between each socioeconomic feature and zip code urbanicity measured with Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes.

Results

Percent in poverty and of adults wit

SUBMITTER: Pear VA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6375680 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature