Comparing mortality from covid-19 to mortality due to overdose : A micromort analysis

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved..

OBJECTIVE: To compare the mortality risk due to covid-19 with death due to overdose in British Columbia, Canada. The opioid epidemic was declared a public health emergency in 2016.

METHODS: Mortality risk was calculated in micromorts with covid-19 data for January-October 2020, derived from the BC center for Disease Control, and illicit drug toxicity deaths for January 2010-September 2020, derived from the BC Coroners Service. Age-stratified covid-19 incidence and deaths per 100,000 population and age-stratified illicit drug toxicity death rates per 100,000 population were calculated. A micromort is a unit of risk equivalent to a one-in-a-million chance of death.

RESULTS: During the covid-19 pandemic, illicit drug toxicity deaths reached 1.0 micromorts per day, representing an increase of 0.5 micromorts per day relative to 2019 rates. In comparison, covid-19 mortality risk was 0.05 micromorts per day among individuals from the general population living in British Columbia and 21.1 micromorts per day among those infected with covid-19. Covid-related mortality risk was significantly lower among individuals aged <60 years, relative to older adults, whereas drug toxicity-related mortality was highest for individuals aged 30-59 years.

CONCLUSIONS: The mortality associated with covid-19 is apparent and distributed unevenly across subpopulations. The mortality due to overdose has increased during covid-19 and exceeds mortality due to covid-19. Our results instantiate the triple threat caused by covid-19 (i.e., public health crisis, economic crisis and mental health crisis) and quantitatively highlight the externality of increased mortality due to deaths of despair in response to public health efforts to reduce covid-related mortality.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:296

Enthalten in:

Journal of affective disorders - 296(2022) vom: 01. Jan., Seite 514-521

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Lee, Yena [VerfasserIn]
Lui, Leanna M W [VerfasserIn]
Brietzke, Elisa [VerfasserIn]
Liao, Yuhua [VerfasserIn]
Lu, Ciyong [VerfasserIn]
Ho, Roger [VerfasserIn]
Subramaniapillai, Mehala [VerfasserIn]
Mansur, Rodrigo B [VerfasserIn]
Rosenblat, Joshua D [VerfasserIn]
McIntyre, Roger S [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Age Groups
British Columbia
COVID-19
Canada
Comorbidity
Coronavirus Infections
Depression
Depressive Disorder
Drug Overdose
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Global Health
Humans
Journal Article
Loneliness
Mental Health
Micromort
Middle Aged
Mood Disorders
Mortality
Mortality rate
Opioid
Opioid Epidemic
Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care
Pandemics
Pandemics / prevention & control*
Population Health
Public Health
Public Policy
Public health
Resilience
Risk
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Social Medicine
Substance abuse
Suicide
Unemployment
Well-being

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 18.11.2021

Date Revised 17.12.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.059

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM331964902