Disability-Adjusted Life-Years for Drug Overdose Crisis and COVID-19 Are Comparable During the Two Years of Pandemic in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The drug overdose crisis with shifting patterns from primarily opioid to polysubstance uses and COVID-19 infections are 2 concurrent public health crises in the United States, affecting the population of sizes in different magnitudes (approximately < 10 million for substance use disorder [SUD] and drug overdoses vs 80 million for COVID-19 within 2 years of the pandemic). Our objective is to compare the relative scale of disease burden for the 2 crises within a common framework, which could help inform policy makers with resource allocation and prioritization strategies.

Methods

We calculated disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for SUD (including opioids and stimulants) and COVID-19 infections, respectively. We collected estimates for SUD prevalence, overdose de

SUBMITTER: Chen Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9691271 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature