JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Opioid analgesics are pain relievers. There are no better drugs than opioids for treating severe pain, however, opioids are the main drugs associated with overdose deaths.

Objective:

The study aimed to identify the distribution and clusters of opioid overdoses across New York.

Methods:

We used the deidentified hospital inpatient discharges datasets (SPARCS) from 2010 – 2015. ICD 9 and ICD 10 codes were used to identify and retrieve opioid overdose patients. We merged and aggregated SPARCS datasets to a geographic shapefile by all counties in New York.

Results:

More than half of the opioid overdose population (n = 235,178) were male (70%). Most patients were 30 - 49 years old (48.3%). Among patients, white non-Hispanics had the highest opioid overdose. Nearly all counties showed increasing rates of overdoses over six years. The high overdose clusters were identified in Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Madison, Chenango, Delaware, and Sullivan counties (P < 0.05). The highest overdose rates were identified in the Central and Eastern New York regions.

Conclusions:

The areas of highest overdose deaths among opioid use disorders were not necessarily the areas with the highest usage rates. This tells us that public health services may be lacking in these communities and this represents an opportunity for the New York Department of Public Health to improve our education and public health response in these communities. Opioid use and overdose rates do not always correlate well. This shows that special attention to counties with high overdose/user rates is warranted. The findings could inform health policy decisions at the county and state levels based on the geographic and demographic patterns to prevent and control opioid crises.