Opioid-related overdose deaths by race and neighborhood economic hardship in Chicago
Tamara Rushovich, M. Allison Arwady, Elizabeth Salisbury‐Afshar, Ponni Arunkumar, Steven E. Aks, Nikhil Prachand
Abstract
Compared to national findings, Chicago has both a higher rate of opioid-related overdose death and a markedly different distribution by demographics. The Chicago Department of Public Health analyzed fatal overdoses by level of neighborhood economic hardship. The highest rate of opioid-related deaths occurred in neighborhoods with high economic hardship (36.9 per 100,000 population) compared to medium- (20.5) and low- (12.3) hardship neighborhoods. However, these patterns were not consistent across racial/Hispanic ethnicity subgroups. These data support the need to consider the role of racism and other structural, social, and economic factors when designing interventions to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths.