Citation

Smith TE, Ledneva T, Cohen DE, Ramsey KS, Bauer MJ, Carruthers J, Conroy MB, Dreslin SR, Friedrich M, Sun M, Gould MS, Schoenbaum M, Olfson M. AJPM Focus 2023; 2(4): e100151.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, American Journal of Preventive Medicine Board of Governors, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.focus.2023.100151

PMID

37965496

PMCID

PMC10641108

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 was associated with increases in non-natural cause mortality in the U.S., including deaths due to drug overdose, homicide, and motor vehicle crashes. Initial reports indicated higher rates of non-natural mortality among ethnoracial minority groups. This report aims to clarify these disparities by documenting trends in non-natural mortality across ethnoracial groups during the 2020 COVID-19 surge in New York State.

METHODS: We report monthly trends in non-natural cause mortality (overall and stratified by ethnoracial status) in New York State from January 2019 through December 2020, which included the COVID-19 onset in March 2020.

RESULTS: Total mean monthly unintentional overdose rates per 100,000 increased from 17.45 (before surge: January 2019-February 2020) to 23.19 (after surge: March 2020-December 2020) (mean difference=5.73, 95% CI=3.82, 7.65; p<0.001). Mean monthly homicide death rates increased from 2.34 before surge to 3.55 after surge (mean difference=1.20, 95% CI=0.60, 1.81; p<0.001), with the increase seen primarily in the non-Latinx Black population. Although increasing unintentional overdose death rates before surge equally affected non-Latinx White, Latinx, and non-Latinx Black persons, they remained high for non-Latinx Black persons but dropped for the other 2 groups after the pandemic onset. None of the ethnoracial subgroups showed significant increases in suicide or motor vehicle crash death rates.

CONCLUSIONS: Non-Latinx Black persons showed disproportionately high and sustained increased rates of unintentional overdose and homicide death rates after the 2020 COVID-19 surge in New York State. Fatality review and death scene investigation research is needed to better understand these disparities.

Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic

Language: en

Keywords

COVID-19; ethnoracial disparities; homicide deaths; unintentional overdose deaths