Grace Wade in New Scientist:
Drug overdose deaths have steadily increased in the US since 1999, largely due to the proliferation of prescription and illicit opioids like morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl.
“There’s been a lot of focus on overdose among younger people,” says Chelsea Shover at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We wanted to understand to what degree is that happening among older adults.”
She and her colleagues collected data on overdose deaths in adults 65 years and older from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database. The database tracks every fatality recorded in the country, including the person’s age, race, gender and cause of death.
More here.