A team of researchers from the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education conducted a study examining how drug overdose deaths correlate with urban census tracts.
The team consisted of research associates Ryan McMaster, Luma Masarweh‑Zawahri and Vaishali S. Deo, Senior Research Associate Karen Coen Flynn and Daniel J. Flannery, the Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Professor and director of the Begun Center.
Their study, titled “Drug Overdose Death among Residents of Urban Census Tracts: How Granular Geographical Analyses Uncover Socioenvironmental Correlates in Cuyahoga County, Ohio,” was published in the Journal of Urban Health (Springer Nature). They examined how socioenvironmental factors at the census tract level impact drug-related mortality rates in Cuyahoga County. By leveraging detailed geographical data through a close partnership with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner and opportunity index data published by The Ohio State University College of Medicine, the research highlighted significant disparities in overdose deaths, underscoring the critical need for targeted public health interventions in urban areas disproportionately affected by the overdose epidemic.
The takeaway from this research is that persons living in the lowest opportunity areas of Cuyahoga County face significantly higher risk (four times) of drug-related mortality than persons who live in high opportunity areas.