Suspected heroin-related overdoses incidents in Cincinnati, Ohio: A spatiotemporal analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Opioid misuse and deaths are increasing in the United States. In 2017, Ohio had the second highest overdose rates in the US, with the city of Cincinnati experiencing a 50% rise in opioid overdoses since 2015. Understanding the temporal and geographic variation in overdose emergencies may help guide public policy responses to the opioid epidemic.

Methods and findings

We used a publicly available data set of suspected heroin-related emergency calls (n = 6,246) to map overdose incidents to 280 census block groups in Cincinnati between August 1, 2015, and January 30, 2019. We used a Bayesian space-time Poisson regression model to examine the relationship between demographic and environmental characteristics and the number of calls within block groups. Higher numbers o

SUBMITTER: Li ZR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6850525 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature