Drugs involved in Kentucky drug poisoning deaths and relation with antecedent controlled substance prescription dispensing

Table 1 Characteristics of Kentucky residents who died from drug poisoning in 2021, involvement of opioids and stimulants in the drug poisoning deaths, and history of any dispensed opioid prescriptions

Drug Poisoning Death Characteristics	Drug Poisoning Deaths					Dispensed^b opioid prescriptions after January 1, 2008 N(row %)
	N(col %)	Rate (per 100,000 residents) by involved drug
	N(col %)	Any drug	Opioid^a without stimulant (n = 899)	Opioid and stimulant (n = 888)	Stimulant without opioid (n = 258)
All	2248	49.9	19.9	19.7	5.7	1874(83.4)
Age at death
<18	12(0.5)	1.2	supp^c	supp	supp	supp
18–24	130(5.8)	31.4	17.6	11.1	supp	supp
25–34	485(21.6)	82.3	34.6	35.8	7.0	374(77.1)
35–44	670(29.8)	119.0	43.3	54.3	10.7	568(84.8)
45–54	489(21.8)	87.7	32.1	34.3	13.4	436(89.2)
55–64	372(16.5)	62.1	26.2	18.7	10.7	326(87.6)
65+	90(4.0)	11.7	4.7	2.7	supp	80(88.9)
Race/ethnicity
White NH	1977(87.9)	52.5	21.0	20.2	6.2	1689(85.4)
Black NH	231(10.3)	61.2	23.1	30.0	6.4	171(74.0)
Other NH	11(0.5)	6.2	supp	supp	supp	7(63.6)
Hispanic	29(1.3)	15.4	8.0	5.9	supp	7(24.1)
Sex
Male	1510(67.2)	67.6	25.9	27.8	8.1	1229(81.4)
Female	738(32.8)	32.4	14.1	11.8	3.4	645(87.4)
Drug poisoning Intent^d
Unintentional	2166(96.4)	48.0	19.2	19.4	5.5	1812(83.7)
Intentional	48(2.1)	1.1	0.3	supp	supp	37(77.1)
Undetermined	34(1.5)	0.8	0.4	supp	supp	25(73.5)

^aOpioid involved drug poisoning death is defined as a drug poisoning death (i.e., underlying cause-of-death in the ICD-10 range X40-X44, X60-X64, X85, Y10-Y14) and a multiple cause-of-death in the ICD-10 range T40.0-T40.4 or T40.6. Stimulant-involved drug poisoning death is defined as a drug poisoning death with involvement of cocaine or other psychostimulants (e.g., amphetamine, methamphetamine), and captured as a death certificate with an underlying cause-of-death in the ICD-10 range X40-X44, X60-X64, X85, Y10-Y14 and a multiple cause-of-death ICD-10 code T40.5 or T43.6
^bDefinition for dispensed opioid analgesics products (MEDI-SPAN search criteria) is provided in Appendix Table A1
^cCounts ≤ 5 and rates based on ≤ 10 events are suppressed by state data reporting policy. The next smallest count is suppressed to prevent calculation of the suppressed small count by subtraction from the total
^dDrug poisoning intent is determined based on the underlying cause-of-death ICD-10 codes: Unintentional (X40-X44), Intentional (X60-X64, X85), Undetermined Intent (Y10-Y14)

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