Trends in Drug Overdose Mortality in Ohio During the First 7 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

One limitation of our study is that the cause of death is still pending for 0.034% of deaths (121 of 351 834 total deaths) over our sample period. We are therefore missing a small number of deaths that could eventually be counted as overdoses. In addition, our findings may not be generalizable outside the state of Ohio. We found similar results in several large counties that provided medical examiner data, but it is not yet possible to conduct a similar analysis using a nationally representative sample. Still unknown is whether and how the pandemic caused this spike in fatal overdoses, and why overdose deaths returned to baseline levels after rising sharply at the start of the pandemic.