All drug overdose deaths, Georgia July 2018 - June 2019

State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) All Drug Overdose Deaths, Georgia, July 2018 June 2019*

The State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) collects detailed investigative and toxicological information from Coroners/Medical Examiners about unintentional drug overdose deaths, to better understand the changing nature of the opioid epidemic and inform key stakeholders.

Unintentional All Drug Overdose Deaths (AD-OD) and Opioid-Involved^ Overdose Deaths (OI-OD)

AD-OD and OI-OD by Medical Examiner (ME) Entity

Cobb

DeKalb

Fulton

Gwinnett

GBI

Total

All Drug Opioid All Drug

Opioid

All Drug

Opioid All Drug Opioid All Drug

Opioid

All Drug

Opioid

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

# (%)

85 (6.9) 65 (8.2) 195 (15.9) 133 (16.8) 181 (14.8) 101 (12.8) 67 (5.5) 58 (7.3) 699 (57.0) 435 (54.9) 1226 (100.0) 792 (100.0)

AD-OD by County of Injury
Number of deaths
Opioid-involved unintentional drug overdose deaths in Georgia from July 2018 to June 2019 were predominantly:
Male (64.5%) White (80.0%) Between 35-44 years of age (26.1%)

AD-OD and OI-OD by Selected Demographics

All-Drug (AD-OD)

# (%)

Rate
(per 100,000 Population)

Total

1226 (100.0)

11.6

Sex

Male 799 (65.2)

15.5

Female 427 (34.8)

7.8

Race

White 907 (74.0)

14.2

Black 291 (23.7)

8.4

Other/Unknown 28 (2.3)

3.7

Age Group (years)

<15

3 (0.2)

0.1

15-24

69 (5.6)

4.8

25-34 265 (21.6)

17.8

35-44 295 (24.1)

21.4

45-54 264 (21.5)

18.9

55-64 243 (19.8)

18.6

65-74

76 (6.2)

8.2

75+

11 (0.9)

1.9

Opioid (OI-OD)

# (%) 792 (100.0)

Rate
(per 100,000 Population)
7.5

511 (64.5)

9.9

281 (35.5)

5.2

632 (80.0)

9.9

140 (17.7)

4.1

20 (2.5)

2.6

1 (0.1)

0.1

54 (6.8)

3.7

201 (25.4)

13.5

207 (26.1)

15.0

155 (19.6)

11.1

136 (17.2)

10.4

36 (4.6)

3.9

2 (0.3)

0.3

OI-OD by County of Injury
Number of deaths
Comparing data from the previous report for OI-OD deaths from July 2017 June 2018, OI-OD deaths from July 2018 June 2019 have shown:
7.4% decrease 12.5% decrease among females 28.4% increase among Black persons 100% increase among the 65-74 age group

AD-OD and OI-OD by Age Group & Sex

200

194 193

179

All Drug

150

145 138

136

Opioid

100
50
50 38
0

101

102

107

71 46

71 56

18

1916

10 31

85
69 54

65
30 18 10 2

600 565

AD-OD and OI-OD by Race & Sex

500

400

396

342

300
236 213
200

All Drug Opioid

100

98

78

42

21 17

73

0

MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

White

Black

Data source: Georgia Violent Death Reporting System (GA-VDRS) and State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)

* Data includes all drug overdose cases that overdosed in Georgia with date of death from July 2018 June 2019; contains Georgia and non-Georgia residents.

ME entity determined by certifier county. DeKalb ME includes DeKalb, Hall, Henry, and Rockdale counties. GBI includes all other counties not represented by an ME.

^ Opioid-involved includes cases with an opioid listed in the cause of death. These cases may have also tested positive for other non-opioid substances. Rate indicates deaths per 100,000 persons using 2019 Census data as the denominator.

Note: Data is subject to change due to data quality improvements. Data shown on this report may not depict the true burden of opioid overdose deaths in Georgia.

Other

1/13/21

https://dph.georgia.gov/drug-surveillance-unit

Number of Deaths 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74
75+ <15 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+
Number of Deaths

State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) All Drug Overdose Deaths, Georgia, July 2018 June 2019*

Unintentional Opioid-involved^ Overdose Deaths (OI-OD) Continued

OI-OD by Drug Type & Month of Death

41.8% of heroin-involved deaths tested positive for synthetics, and 20.9% tested
positive for Rx opioids

Of Rx opioid-involved deaths: 18.4% also tested positive
for heroin 22.7% also tested positive
for synthetics 34.4% tested positive for
either heroin or synthetics

Compared to heroin-involved deaths from July 2017 June 2018, heroin-involved deaths from July 2018 June 2019
increased 29.9%

OI-OD by Drug Type & Common Non-opioid Drug Pairings

90% of opioidinvolved unintentional drug overdose deaths
in Georgia during July 2018 to June 2019 tested positive for more than 2
substances
Median number of substances present
was 6

N = 792
Did you know?

N = 508

N = 375

GA DPH uses overdose death reports (i.e. scene investigation, autopsy, toxicology results) from coroners/medical examiners (C/MEs) to abstract pertinent information into a national database developed by CDC.

95.7% of all unintentional opioid-involved overdose deaths from July 2018 June 2019 had C/ME reports submitted to GA DPH. The average time frame between death and certification of these deaths was 63 days. Long lag times are often due to pending toxicology results.

For faster reporting, a suspect overdose field was added to GAVERS, which does NOT print on the death certificate.

Cause of death (CoD) text is important for drug overdose surveillance. In order to determine what kind of overdoses are trending upward and/or identify the presence of a dangerous new substance, drug-specific terms MUST be included in the CoD text. During this time period, 5.4% of all unintentional drug overdose deaths contained vague CoD text like "mixed drug toxicity" or "drug overdose".

Findings from these data can help inform drug overdose prevention & response efforts!

Data source: Georgia Violent Death Reporting System (GA-VDRS) and State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) * Data includes unintentional opioid overdose cases that overdosed in Georgia with date of death from July 2018 June 2019; contains Georgia and non-Georgia residents. ^ Opioid-involved includes cases with an opioid listed in the cause of death. These cases may have also tested positive for other non-opioid substances. Drug-specific categories are not mutually exclusive. Counts were derived from positive toxicology results. Cases may have also tested positive for other substances. Synthetics includes fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, U47700, U48800, U49900, AH7921, and MT45. Rx opioids includes oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, tramadol, buprenorphine, methadone, meperidine, tapentadol, dextrorphan, levorphanol, propoxyphene, pentazocine, phenacetin, and morphine or codeine with reported evidence of prescription consumption. Stimulants include cocaine and amphetamines. Antihistamines include diphenhydramine, promethazine, hydroxyzine, and doxylamine. Note: Data is subject to change due to data quality improvements. Data shown on this report may not depict the true burden of drug overdose deaths in Georgia.

1/13/21

https://dph.georgia.gov/drug-surveillance-unit