@article{ref1,
title="Spatial-temporal trends in the risk of illicit drug toxicity death in British Columbia",
journal="BMC public health",
year="2022",
author="Hu, Kevin and Klinkenberg, Brian and Gan, Wen Qi and Slaunwhite, Amanda K.",
volume="22",
number="1",
pages="e2121-e2121",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Illicit drug poisoning (overdose) continues to be an important public health problem with overdose-related deaths currently recorded at an unprecedented level. Understanding the geographic variations in fatal overdose mortality is necessary to avoid disproportionate risk resulting from service access inequity. <br><br>METHODS: We estimated the odds of fatal overdose per event from all cases captured by the overdose surveillance system in British Columbia (2015 - 2018), using both conventional logistic regression and Generalized Additive Models (GAM). The results of GAM were mapped to identify spatial-temporal trends in the risk of fatal overdose. <br><br>RESULTS: We found that the odds of fatal overdose were about 30% higher in rural areas than in large urban centers, with some regions reporting odds 50% higher than others. Temporal variations in fatal overdose revealed an increasing trend over the entire province. However, the increase occurred earlier and faster in the Interior and Northern regions. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Rural areas were disproportionately affected by fatal overdose; lack of access to harm reduction services may partly explain the elevated risk in these areas.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1471-2458",
doi="10.1186/s12889-022-14586-8",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14586-8"
}