Temporal and Geographic Shifts in Urban and Non-urban Cocaine Related Fatal Overdoses in BC, Canada
This paper attempts to bridge the data gap between location and variables attributing to fatal overdoses by analyzing spatial patterns across BC. It uses sociodemographic information gathered from BC Coroners Service and RCMP databases to define cases by Local Health Area (LHA) and classify them as either urban or non-urban.
The authors compared cocaine related and non-cocaine related overdose deaths, calculated annual overdoses of both in urban and non-urban areas, generalized linear mixed results across individual and area levels, and used Hot Spot Analysis Getis-Ord GI statistics. The paper concluded that age (25-43, 35-44) and density of population had the highest factor ratings, and that the highest likelihood of overdose deaths actually occurred in more rural areas
This type of analysis is especially relevant during the Opioid Epidemic; although this is not a study of opioids, this type of pattern analysis can shed light on how to reduce deaths from overdoses.