DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE EPIDEMIC
Since the 1990s, when the amount of opioids prescribed to patients began to grow, the number of overdoses and deaths from prescription opioids has also increased.
.From 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2017 than in 1999.
(See Table 1, 2017). (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prescribing Practices)
(See Table 1, 2017). (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prescribing Practices)
While death rates associated with opioid overdose have increased for virtually every population group, the rates are highest among males under age 50 .
Between 2015 and 2016, the death rate from opioid overdoses for African Americans surged from 6.3 to 10 deaths per 100,000—the largest single-year increase for any race group.
In the early days of the opioid crisis, research suggests that blacks were less likely than whites to receive opioid prescriptions. By 2015, new evidence suggests that the racial gap in prescriptions had narrowed. |
(See Table 3,2 , 2016). (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Demographics)
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