Reduction in Drug-Related Overdoses Associated With Unemployment Insurance

MONDAY, Aug. 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Unemployment insurance (UI), operationalized as the weekly benefit allowance (WBA) replacement rate, is associated with a lower risk for drug-related overdose, according to a study published in the August issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy.

Silvia S. Martins, M.D., Ph.D., from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, and colleagues used data from the pooled 2014 to 2020 Detailed Restricted Mortality files for all counties from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine whether UI, operationalized as the WBA replacement rate, is negatively associated with drug-related overdoses. The association between the WBA replacement rate and each county-level age-adjusted mortality outcome was modeled during 2014 to 2020: pre-COVID-19 (2014 to 2018) and COVID-19 (2019 to 2020).

The researchers found that across the entire study period, a more robust WBA replacement rate was associated with a lower risk for any drug, opioid, or stimulant overdose (risk differences, −0.06, −0.04, and −0.03, respectively). In the pre-COVID-19 period, a more robust WBA replacement rate was associated with fewer fatal drug, opioid, and stimulant overdoses, while associations were seen for any fatal drug and stimulant overdoses in the COVID-19 period.

“Although additional research is needed to further interrogate these findings, together the results support the premise that higher WBA replacements rates could serve to buffer some of the adverse consequences of job loss on drug overdose mortality risk at the population level,” the authors write.

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