A group of researchers led by Abenaa Jones, assistant professor of human development and family studies and Ann Atherton Hertzler Early Career Professor in Health and Human Development at Penn State, examined demographic characteristics of the more than half-million people in the United States who died of an overdose between 2012 and 2021. They used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide‐ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) “Underlying Causes of Death” file and the Census Bureau to identify the region of residence for every white or Black individual who died of overdose.
“The opioid overdose story in the U.S. was young, white and rural for a long time,” said Joel Segel, associate professor of health policy and administration and co-author of this research. “But the story is changing, especially for older Black adults.”
The overdose death rates increased for both Black and white individuals of all ages during the 10-year study, with younger Black individuals still dying less often than white individuals of overdose. However, overdose death rates increased considerably for older Black individuals from 2012 to 2021. As a result, Black individuals now die of overdose at a higher rate than white individuals in the U.S.
During the pandemic, overdose death rates spiked dramatically across the nation and especially sharply among Black individuals compared to white individuals. In Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota — the states with the most pronounced racial differences — a Black person over the age of 55 was around five times more likely to die of a drug overdose than a white person of the same age.
“The most significant finding in our paper was the increase in fatal drug overdoses among Black individuals — particularly older adults in the Northeast, Midwest and West,” said Shashim Waghmare, graduate student in health policy administration at Penn State and coauthor of this research. “This shift highlights the exacerbating impact of COVID-19 on substance use disparities, underlining an urgent need for tailored, culturally competent interventions and resources.”
The other authors agreed that immediate, focused action is needed.
“This is a crisis, and much of the nation is not aware of it,” Jones said. “Naloxone, known as NARCAN, has reduced deaths among people who use opioids, but if, for example, people who use cocaine do not know they are using opioids — as may be the case when fentanyl is cut into cocaine — then they may not feel the need to carry naloxone. Still, distribution of naloxone to older Black adults might save lives. Free distribution of fentanyl test strips might be another way to save lives. Most importantly, researchers and policy makers need to develop a better understanding of this crisis so that we can reverse the trend and save lives.”
The WONDER data did not include information about the reasons for the increases, but the researchers pointed to multiple factors that may be driving the increased deaths among older Black adults.