A new online mapping tool developed by the Appalachian Regional Commission and “NORC at the University of Chicago” shows that residents of Appalachia are about 55 percent more likely to die from a drug overdose than other parts of the country. “NORC” is a non-partisan and objective research organization which was established in 1941.
The Appalachian Overdose Mapping Tool compares each county in the Appalachian region to the rest of the region and to the rest of the United States.
For Indiana County, the mapping tool shows a distinct problem: an overdose mortality rate of 42.9 per 100,000 residents between 2011 and 2015. The rate for the rest of the Appalachia was 30.6, and for the U.S. as a whole, it was 20.6. There were 104 deaths from overdose over the five years.
Armstrong County’s overdose mortality rate was 41.7; Westmoreland, 46.3; Cambria 46.1; Clearfield 22.5; Jefferson 34.7.
The difficulty when applying the statistics to the opioid crisis is the timeliness of the data. The most recent numbers in the study are from three years ago. The epidemic has continued to devastate the region , and the death rate may be different now than in the five years of the study.
Below is the link to the study. Click on the “Appalachian Overdose Mapping Tool” within the article.
https://www.arc.gov/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=622
