Article Text

other Versions

Download PDFPDF
Original research
Maryland opioid overdose deaths from 2018 to 2022: occupational patterns and their sociodemographic variations
  1. Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili1,
  2. Ryoko Susukida1,
  3. Himani Byregowda1,
  4. Zhiqing E Zhou1,
  5. Clifford S Mitchell2,
  6. Renee M Johnson1
  1. 1Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  2. 2Environmental Health Bureau, Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili; mamines1{at}jh.edu

Abstract

Introduction We aimed to describe the occupational pattern of opioid overdose deaths in Maryland between 2018 and 2022 and determine the occupations at higher risk of opioid overdose death.

Methods The sample included undetermined or unintentional opioid overdose deaths among those aged 16 years or older in Maryland, drawn from the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System. We calculated population-based incidence overdose rates by occupation, stratified by sex and race. We further calculated the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) comparing each occupation with all other groups combined and estimated the IRRs among males versus females and non-Hispanic whites versus other racial/ethnic groups.

Results The pooled sample included 11 455 opioid overdose decedents (72% male and 55% non-Hispanic whites) of whom 80% were employed. The three occupation groups with the highest incidence rates were ‘construction and extraction’, ‘transportation and material moving’ and ‘installation/maintenance and repair’ with 291, 137 and 133 deaths per 100 000 workers in these respective occupational groups. Incidence rates were significantly higher in males than females in all categories except those ‘Not in Labour Force’ (IRR=0.51, p<0.001). Non-Hispanic whites relative to other racial/ethnic groups had a lower incidence of opioid overdose death in ‘Military-Specific’ occupations (IRR=0.53, p=0.031).

Conclusion Opioid overdose deaths vary by type of occupation and certain occupations are at higher risk of overdose death. The findings highlight the need for priority setting in the implementation and expansion of existing strategies to target the workers most impacted by opioid overdose.

  • Epidemiology
  • Public health
  • Toxicology
  • Accidents
  • Mortality

Data availability statement

Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Data availability statement

Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

View Full Text

Footnotes

  • Contributors MA-E conceived, and designed the study, performed the data analyses, and drafted the manuscript with input from all authors. RS supervised the data analyses and contributed to the interpretation of the results and reporting. HB contributed to the interpretation of the results and reporting. ZEZ contributed to the interpretation of the results. CSM validated the study and contributed to both the interpretation of the results and the reporting. RMJ conceived, designed and validated the study, and contributed to the interpretation of the results. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. MA-E, as the guarantor/principal investigator, takes responsibility for the overall content of the study, has access to the data and controlled the decision to publish.

  • Funding This research was supported by a grant from MDH to the Maryland Overdose Data Collaborative at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) through a Cooperative Agreement number 6NU17CE924961 and a research and training award from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Psychosocial, Organizational, and Environmental Center in Mental Health-Total Worker Health (POE-TWH), through a grant number 90097970.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

  • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.