Opioid overdose deaths increasing more among Black Kentuckians, new study shows
Opioid overdose deaths among Black Kentuckians increased by 57% in 2020, outpacing the jump among white Kentuckians by more than 10 percentage points, according to research published recently from the University of Kentucky.
Historically, White people die from opioid overdoses at disproportionately higher rates than other races. But research conducted by UK faculty for the HEALing Communities Study found that overdose rates increased 57% in non-Hispanic Black individuals from 2019 to 2020, while the rate of white people who fatally overdosed during the same time rose by 45%.
The research was was published in the American Journal of Public Health in September and the Journal of the American Medical Association in July. Researchers calculated the death rate trends using data from 8.3 million people across 67 communities with high overdose rates in Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts and New York.
The year before, the American Journal of Public Health documented a 40% uptick in Black fatal overdoses “relative to non-Hispanic white individuals, but no change among other race/ethnicities.”
Statewide from September 2019 to September 2020, fatal overdoses across demographics spiked by roughly 50%, according to the state’s Office of Drug Control Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the third-highest rate in the country behind Louisiana and the District of Columbia.
Kentucky saw 1,964 fatal overdoses during that 12-month period, compared with 1,316 the year before. Nationally during that time, overdoses went up by 29%. More men die from overdoses than women.
UK began the HEALing Communities Study in 2019 when it, along with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, were awarded an $87 million federal grant to find scientific solutions to significantly reduce the state’s soaring rate of fatal overdoses. UK is one of four study sites conducting research as part of the larger National Institute of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) initiative. The four-year grant is paid for by NIH and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Though research was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the study’s goal is to develop evidence-based solutions to both help end the drug epidemic and better support Kentuckians in active addiction and recovery.
“The new shifting demographics are shaping the way UK’s HEALing Communities Study research team is helping to address the opioid epidemic in Kentucky,” Sharon Walsh, principal investigator and director of UK’s Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, said in a Wednesday news release.
As a result of the new research, “The HCS team is developing and implementing more culturally tailored interventions to reach communities of color in Kentucky, who face additional barriers to accessing treatment,” Walsh said.
Tailored interventions include hosting overdose education events in predominantly Black communities, as well as broadening the distribution of naloxone, or Narcan, a life-saving nasal spray that immediately reverses the effect of an opioid overdose.
