U.S. children and adolescents are increasingly dying from opioid overdoses, according to a study published on JAMA Network.
Seven things to know:
1. For the study, researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis using CDC mortality data from between 1999 and 2016.
2. Researchers found nearly 9,000 children and adolescents under the age of 20 have died from opioid overdoses. During the 18-year span, the mortality rate for this age group has more than doubled, according to CNN.
"What began more than two decades ago as a public health problem primarily among young and middle-aged white males is now an epidemic of prescription and illicit opioid abuse that is taking a toll on all segments of U.S. society, including the pediatric population," researchers wrote, according to CNN. "Millions of children and adolescents are now routinely exposed in their homes, schools and communities to these potent and addictive drugs."
3. Of the 8,986 children and adolescents who died from opioid overdoses, about 73 percent were male and 88 percent were adolescents in between the ages 15 to 19. Between that age group, about 3,050 deaths involved one or more substances.
4. About 7 percent of the deaths were between the ages of zero to four, about 4 percent were between the ages 10 to 14 and about 1 percent were between ages five to nine.
5. Researchers also found non-hispanic white children and adolescents made up 80 percent of the deaths. Hispanic children made up 10 percent of the deaths, while non-hispanic black children made up about 7 percent.
6. Prescribed opioids made up 73 percent of the deaths. Deaths attributed to heroin use killed about 24 percent of adolescents between the age of 15 to 19.
7. About 81 percent of the opioid attributed deaths were marked as unintentional, while 5 percent were marked successful and about 2.4 percent were ruled homicides. For children five and under, about 25 percent of the deaths were marked as homicides. The homicide rate among infants was about 35 percent.
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