We examine the effects of state-level economic conditions including unemployment rates, median house price, median household income, insurance coverage, and annual and weekly work time on deaths on drug overdose deaths including from opioids and prescription opioids between 1999 and 2014. We employ difference-in-differences estimation controlling for state and year fixed effects, state-specific time trends, and demographic characteristics. Drug overdose deaths significantly declined with higher house prices, an effect driven by reduction in prescription-opioid mortality, by nearly 0.17 deaths per 100,000 (~4%) with a $10,000 increase in median house price. House price effects were more pronounced and only significant among males, non-Hispanic Whites, and individuals younger 45 years. Other economic indicators had insignificant effects. Our findings suggest that economic downturns that substantially reduce house prices such as the Great Recession can increase opioid-related deaths, suggesting that efforts to control access to such drugs should especially intensify during these periods.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
3
5%
Other
12
20%
Unknown
16
27%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 34. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 April 2025.
All research outputs
#1,485,405
of 34,307,719 outputs
Outputs from Medical Care Research and Review
#64
of 882 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#22,213
of 357,840 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Medical Care Research and Review
#2
of 10 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,307,719 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 882 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 357,840 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 10 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 8 of them.
