Macroeconomic conditions and opioid abuse

Alex Hollingsworth (), Christopher Ruhm and Kosali Simon

Journal of Health Economics, 2017, vol. 56, issue C, 222-233

Abstract: We examine how deaths and emergency department (ED) visits related to use of opioid analgesics (opioids) and other drugs vary with macroeconomic conditions. As the county unemployment rate increases by one percentage point, the opioid death rate per 100,000 rises by 0.19 (3.6%) and the opioid overdose ED visit rate per 100,000 increases by 0.95 (7.0%). Macroeconomic shocks also increase the overall drug death rate, but this increase is driven by rising opioid deaths. Our findings hold when performing a state-level analysis, rather than county-level; are primarily driven by adverse events among whites; and are stable across time periods.

Keywords: Macroeconomic conditions; Unemployment; Opioids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (88)

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Working Paper: Macroeconomic Conditions and Opioid Abuse (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:56:y:2017:i:c:p:222-233

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.07.009

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