Death Records

Cocaine, methamphetamine, and spice are addictive, non-opioid substances that negatively impact a person's health through direct and indirect means. Direct health concerns of non-opioid substance use include anxiety, paranoia, seizure, heart attack, stroke, and potentially death while indirect health concerns include the acquisition of disease and infections, particularly sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Substance users experience an increased risk of acquiring STIs since they may exchange sex for substances, use substances within a social setting that may lead to sexual activity, or engage in risky sexual behavior as a result of impaired judgement associated with substance use. The current study evaluated the use of multiple data sources to monitor changes in the rate of cocaine, methamphetamine, and spice related emergency department visits as well as cocaine- and methamphetamine-related death rates, within Marion County, Indiana between 2013 and 2017.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of non-opioid substance use ”including cocaine, methamphetamine and spice within Marion County, Indiana and propose response recommendations utilizing a current opioid response plan.

Opioid abuse has increased exponentially in recent years throughout the United States, leading to an increase in the incidence of emergency response activities, hospitalization, and mortality related to opioid overdose. As a result, states that have been hit particularly hard during this period such as Wisconsin have allocated considerable resources to addressing this crisis via enhanced public health surveillance and outreach, procurement and administration of medical countermeasures, prescription drug monitoring programs, targeted preventive and acute treatment, first responder and hospital staff training, cross-agency collaboration, and Incident Management System activities. Central to these efforts is the identification of the primary drivers of opioid overdose and death to improve the precision and efficacy of targeted public health interventions to address the opioid crisis. The present study sought to accomplish this end by syncing rich data sources at the point of emergency response (EMS ambulance runs) to ultimate mortality outcomes (vital death records).

Objective: To identify the correlates of opioids as an underlying cause of death by linking coroner/medical examiner vital death records with emergency medical service (EMS) ambulance run data. By combining death data to EMS ambulance runs, the goal was to determine characteristics of the emergency response particularly for opioid overdose events that may connect to increased mortality.