The New York Times (12/30, Chokshi) reports researchers “found that opioid deaths were about 85 percent higher among people of prime working age – 16 to 65 – in counties where automotive assembly plants had closed five years earlier, compared with counties where such factories remained open.” The study, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggests that the closure of automotive factories “may have contributed to a rise in local opioid overdose deaths in recent years.”
Newsweek (12/30, Gander) reports researchers examined data between 1999 and 2016 from 112 industrial counties largely in the Midwest and the South. During the study period, “29 counties were affected by a plant closure, while 83 counties weren’t.” The researchers found that “plant closures were followed by a statistically significant increase in deaths due to opioids overdoses. After five years, mortality rates increased by 8.6 deaths…per 100,000 in such regions, compared with areas not hit by a factory shutting down,” which “amounted to an 85 percent increase.”
Related Links:
— “Opioid Deaths Rise When Auto Plants Close, Study Shows, ” Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times, December 30, 2019