Deaths from drug poisoning more than doubled in the United States between 2000 and 2015, and death from poisoning involving opiates more than tripled. These increases have reduced thelife expectancy in non-Hispanic white individuals 3 months since 2000, according to results of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Reduction of heart disease, cancer
In the United States, life expectancy has increased by 2 years overall, from 76.8 years in 2000 to 78.8 years in 2015. From 2000 to 2015, death rates related to heart disease, of cancers, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, to the flu and at the pneumonia, chronic respiratory diseases, and kidney disease declined, contributing to a gain of 2.25 years in life expectancy. Death rates related to unintentional injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, to suicide, chronic liver disease and sepsis increased, contributing to a loss of 0.33 years of lifespan.
Increase in overdoses
Deaths from toxicological poisoning increased from 17,415 in 2000 to 52,404 in 2015. The age-adjusted death rate per 100,000 population increased from 6.2 to 16.3, with most of the increase related to deaths from opioid overdose. Deaths from drug poisoning contributed to a 0.28 year loss in thelife expectancy. Most of this loss (96%) was unintentional.
“The contribution of deaths from opioid poisoning to changes in life expectancy is probably an underestimate, because the accuracy and completeness of the information recorded on death certificates does not state the drugs involved” says Deborah Dowell of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, US.
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