US data show sharply rising drug-induced death rates
- 1Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- 2Office of Statistics and Programming, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Correspondence to: Dr L J Paulozzi Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, USA; lbp4{at}cdc.gov
- Accepted 16 December 2006
Abstract
Substantial numbers of deaths are related to disease and injury resulting from the use of drugs, alcohol and firearms worldwide. Death rates associated with these exposures were compared with those from motor vehicle crashes in the US from 1979 to 2003 by race. Among Caucasians, drug-induced death rates rose sharply after 1990 and surpassed deaths involving alcohol and firearms in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Among African-Americans, drug-induced deaths surpassed alcohol-induced deaths for the first time in 1999.
Footnotes
-
Competing interests: None.
-
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
