Research finds correlations between opioid overdoses, weather and farm income; researchers cite lack of treatment

"The overprescribing of opioid-based painkillers may be the main driver of the increased abuse of opioids in rural America, but economists say that other factors, including declining farm income, extreme weather and other natural disasters, may affect a crisis that is killing thousands of citizens and costing the country billions of dollars," Penn State News reports.

Penn State collaborated with Texas A&M at Galveston on a study of relationships between socioeconomic factors and opioid overdoses. They recently presented their findings at the Allied Social Sciences Assocation's annual meeting in Philadelphia. Using data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they determined that counties with more natural disasters have a higher rate of opioid overdoses. Head researcher Stephen Goetz, a professor of agricultural and regional economics at Penn State and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, hypothesizes that a changing climate could lead to more extreme weather, which could have an effect on opioid-overdose deaths. 

The researchers also found that for each $10,000 reduction in net income per farm, a county's opioid overdoses rose by 10 percent. Opioid-related deaths are increasing in rural counties, they noted. Goetz encourages caution when interpreting data, because with the relatively small farming population, any bump in deaths makes an outsized statistical footprint.

They also found that overdoses among younger people are declining and the highest rates of overdose are among people age 45-64, as The Rural Blog has reported.

The researchers theorize that opioid overdoses are higher in rural areas overall because of the lack of available treatment. "There are far fewer mental-health treatment facilities, so if you have a problem, you might not know where to go for help," Goetz said. "We're thinking that one of the things we need to investigate in the future is whether awareness is the problem or is there a stigma? These are all important issues to consider and they could be addressed through educational or other programs."