Sumner, Steven A and Bowen, Daniel and Holland, Kristin and Zwald, Marissa L and Vivolo-Kantor, Alana and Guy, Gery P and Heuett, William J and Pressley, DeMia P and Jones, Christopher M (2022) Estimating weekly national opioid overdose deaths in near real time using multiple proxy data sources. JAMA Network Open, 5, (7), e2223033. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.23033.
External website: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/f...
Importance: Opioid overdose is a leading public health problem in the United States; however, national data on overdose deaths are delayed by several months or more.
Question: Can proxy data sources be used to estimate national opioid overdose mortality trends in near real time?
Finding: In this cross-sectional time series analysis, signals from 5 overdose-related, proxy data sources encompassing health, law enforcement, and online data from 2014 to 2019 in the US were combined via a statistical model that was able to demonstrate that these data can be used to estimate national opioid overdose death rates with an approximate 1% error.
Meaning: This study suggests that it may be possible to enable a more timely understanding of national opioid overdose mortality trends through the use of near–real-time proxy data sources.
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Harm reduction > Substance use harm reduction
N Communication, information and education > Information transfer / dissemination
P Demography, epidemiology, and history > Population dynamics > Substance related mortality / death
R Research > Research and evaluation method
VA Geographic area > United States
Repository Staff Only: item control page