ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2022
Deaths of Despair: A Scoping Review on the Social Determinants of Drug Overdose, Alcohol-Related Liver Disease and Suicide.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the association between alcohol-related deaths and area-level socioeconomic deprivation and other geographic characteristics in high-income countries.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Despair is Not Hopelessness: Autonomy and Behavioral Interventions for Deaths of Despair.Public health ethics · 2026Article
- Trends in Alcohol-Related Deaths in the United States Over 55 Years: 1968-2023.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- US State Policy Contexts and Mental Health Among Working-Age Adults.The Milbank quarterly · 2026Article
- Qualitative evidence for the determinants of deaths of despair: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Assessing the relationship between community resilience and health outcomes: an observational local-authority level study in England.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Observational
- Deaths of despair before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative analysis of 27 European countries and the United States.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- SDoH-GPT: using large language models to extract social determinants of health.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2026Article
- Educational disparities in alcohol-related liver disease mortality in the 21st century: Beyond deaths of despair?Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Experiences of Discrimination and Alcohol Involvement Among Young Adults at the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Moralisation, stigmatisation, and downstream interventions: How symbolic violence sustains geographic inequalities in deaths of despair in England.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- The Gender Gap in Life Expectancy in the United States and Deaths of Despair: Trends from 1979 to 2022.Population and development review · 2025Article
- Patterns and characteristics of 'calls of despair': a service evaluation using Yorkshire Ambulance Service data.British paramedic journal · 2025Article
- Changes in the association between county industrial composition and working-age mortality from 2000 to 2022.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Employment quality and suicide, drug poisoning, and alcohol-attributable mortality.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- The impact of minimum wage policy on alcohol use disorder: a quasi-experimental study in South Korea.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Noradrenergic Mechanisms and Circuitry of Hyperkatifeia in Alcohol Use Disorder.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Suicides and Overdoses at Work: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2011-2022.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Evolution of the US nonmetropolitan mortality disadvantage by sex, state, and year, 1999-2019.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Article
- Educational inequalities in deaths of despair in 14 OECD countries: a cross-sectional observational study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2025Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is a lack of consensus on the social determinants of Deaths of Despair (DoD), i.e., an increase in mortality attributed to drug overdose, alcohol-related liver disease, and suicide in the United States (USA) during recent years. The objective of this study was to review the scientific literature on DoD with the purpose of identifying relevant social determinants and inequalities related to these mortality trends.
methodsScoping review focusing on the period 2015-2022 based on PubMed search. Articles were selected according to the following inclusion criteria: published between 1 January 2000 and 31 October 2021; including empirical data; analyzed DoD including the three causes defined by Case and Deaton; analyzed at least one social determinant; written in English; and studied DoD in the USA context only. Studies were excluded if they only analyzed adolescent populations. We synthesized our findings in a narrative report specifically addressing DoD by economic conditions, occupational hazards, educational level, geographical setting, and race/ethnicity.
resultsSeventeen studies were included. Overall, findings identify a progressive increase in deaths attributable to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease in the USA in the last two decades. The literature concerning DoD and social determinants is relatively scarce and some determinants have been barely studied. However different, however, large inequalities have been identified in the manner in which the causes of death embedded in the concept of DoD affect different subpopulations, particularly African American, and Hispanic populations, but blue collar-whites are also significantly impacted. Low socioeconomic position and education levels and working in jobs with high insecurity, unemployment, and living in rural areas were identified as the most relevant social determinants of DoD.
conclusionsThere is a need for further research on the structural and intermediate social determinants of DoD and social mechanisms. Intersectional and systemic approaches are needed to better understand and tackle DoD and related inequalities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.