More people die of drugs in urban areas than in rural areas

According to a new badysis by the US National Center for Health Statistics, after a decade in which drug overdose rates were higher in rural areas of the country, they are now higher in the United States. urban areas. .

Researchers found that between 1999 and 2003, rates of drug overdose deaths were higher in urban counties than in rural counties. Then, from 2004 to 2006, overdose mortality rates were similar in rural and urban counties. From 2007 to 2015, overdose mortality rates were higher in rural counties than in urban counties. But in 2016 and 2017, urban countries once again recorded higher rates of drug overdose deaths.

While urban counties had higher rates of overdose deaths from heroin, cocaine and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in 2017, rural counties had higher rates of overdose deaths involving prescription opioids such as morphine, codeine, hydrocodone and oxycodone.

The overdose mortality rate for stimulants such as methamphetamine and amphetamines was 4 per 100,000 in rural counties, which was higher than 3.1 per 100,000 in urban counties.

In 2017, there were 5.2 heroin-related overdose deaths per 100,000 population in urban counties, while rural counties had a rate of 2.9 heroin-related deaths for 100,000 inhabitants.

In urban counties, the rate of overdose deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, fentanyl badogues and tramadol was 9.3 per 100,000; and in rural counties the rate was 7 per 100,000. Cocaine-related mortality rates were also higher in urban counties, at 4.6 per 100,000, compared with 2.4 per 100 in the urban counties. rural counties.

But Dr. Caleb Alexander, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Efficacy, said it was important not to overly distinguish rural areas from urban areas. "It is important not to lose the forest of trees here," he wrote in an email to CNN. "Overall, trends and rates are much more similar than different between these communities."

Alexander noted that the increase in the rate of overdose in urban areas "is attributable to the greater use of heroin and illicit fentanyl in these environments".

"The data show a continued increase in mortality until 2017 and emphasize that the epidemic has had a profound impact in both rural and urban areas," he added.

In the United States, the number of drug overdose deaths has decreased by 5.1% in 2018, according to preliminary data released in July by the National Center for Health Statistics of the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention. . The researchers estimate that there were 68,557 drug overdose deaths in 2018 and 47,590 opioids involved.