ArticleAmerican journal of public health2018
Identifying Unreported Opioid Deaths Through Toxicology Data and Vital Records Linkage: Case Study in Marion County, Indiana, 2011-2016.
Article in American journal of public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contingency Management for Stimulant Use Disorder and Association With Mortality: A Cohort Study.The American journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Examining trends in polydrug overdose deaths across rural Midwest counties in the United States, 2022 through 2024.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Misclassification of opioid-involvement in drug-related overdose deaths in the United States: A scoping review.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- A case study for local data surveillance in opioid overdose fatalities in Cuyahoga County, OH 2016-2020.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2023Article
- Buprenorphine and opioid analgesics: Dispensation and discontinuity among accidental overdose fatalities in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, 2016-2021.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2023Article
- Toxicology Test Results for Public Health Surveillance of the Opioid Epidemic: Retrospective Analysis.Online journal of public health informatics · 2023Article
- Community overdose surveillance: Comparing substances collected from the death scene investigation to toxicology results.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Article
- Using prescribing and toxicology data to determine non-medical prescription drug overdose.Addictive behaviors reports · 2020Article
- The Geography of Opioid Use Disorder: A Data Triangulation Approach.Infectious disease clinics of North America · 2020Review
- Using contributing causes of death improves prediction of opioid involvement in unclassified drug overdoses in US death records.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Article
- Correlates of death during outpatient treatment for opioid use disorder: A national study.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2020Article
- Validating Imputation Procedures to Calculate Corrected Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths, Marion County, Indiana, 2011-2016.Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974) · 2020Article
- Unclassified drug overdose deaths in the opioid crisis: emerging patterns of inequity.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2019Article
- Characteristics of US Counties With High Opioid Overdose Mortality and Low Capacity to Deliver Medications for Opioid Use Disorder.JAMA network open · 2019Article
- Article
- Need for Improved Timeliness of Reporting on Drug Overdose Fatalities: The HEALing Communities Study.Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)Article
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5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo demonstrate the severity of undercounting opioid-involved deaths in a local jurisdiction with a high proportion of unspecified accidental poisoning deaths.
methodsWe matched toxicology data to vital records for all accidental poisoning deaths (n = 1238) in Marion County, Indiana, from January 2011 to December 2016. From vital records, we coded cases as opioid involved, specified other substance, or unspecified. We extracted toxicology data on opioid substances for unspecified cases, and we have reported corrected estimates of opioid-involved deaths after accounting for toxicology findings.
resultsOver a 6-year period, 57.7% of accidental overdose deaths were unspecified and 34.2% involved opioids. Toxicology data showed that 86.8% of unspecified cases tested positive for an opioid. Inclusion of toxicology results more than doubled the proportion of opioid-involved deaths, from 34.2% to 86.0%.
conclusionsLocal jurisdictions may be undercounting opioid-involved overdose deaths to a considerable degree. Toxicology data can improve accuracy in identifying opioid-involved overdose deaths. Public Health Implications. Mandatory toxicology testing and enhanced training for local coroners on standards for death certificate reporting are needed to improve the accuracy of local monitoring of opioid-involved accidental overdose deaths.
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