Facts + Statistics: Mortality risk

 

Odds of dying from accidental injuries

The chart below shows the likelihood, or odds, of dying as a result of a specific type of accident. The odds of dying over a one-year period are based on the U.S. population as a whole, not on participants in any particular activity or on how dangerous that activity may be. For example, more people are killed in auto accidents than in motorcycle accidents or airplane crashes, not because riding a motorcycle or traveling in an airplane is more or less dangerous, but because far more people travel by car. Drug poisoning is the leading cause of injury death in the United States. The lifetime chances of dying from a drug or medication overdose were one in 96 in 2014, compared with about 1 in 645 in a car accident and 1 in 161,856 for fatal injuries caused by lightning.

 

The opioid crisis in the United States

Opioid abuse and addiction is now recognized as a significant public health problem in the United States. Drug poisoning, from prescription and illegal drugs combined, is the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Between 1999 and 2015 deaths from drug poisoning more than tripled from 16,849 in 1999 to 52,404 in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Opioid analgesics, a group of prescription drugs that are used to alleviate chronic and acute pain, have been increasingly involved in the rise of drug overdose deaths over the same period. In 1999, there were 4,030 deaths attributed to opioid analgesics, accounting for 24 percent of all drug poisoning deaths. By 2014 deaths from opioid analgesics more than quadrupled to 18,893 and accounted for 40 percent of all drug poisoning deaths, according to the CDC.

 

Number Of Drug Poisoning Deaths, 1999-2015

 

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(1) Drug poisoning caused by prescription and illegal drugs.
(2) Prescription drugs used to alleviate chronic and acute pain.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

A June 2017 report issued by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association found that diagnoses of opioid-use disorder (addiction to opioids, including prescription painkillers and illegal narcotics such as heroin) increased almost 500 percent between 2010 and 2016.  The study examined claims from 30 million people who had commercial insurance provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers. It found that opioid-use disorder was 40 times more likely in patients prescribed high doses for a short duration, compared with low doses for a short duration. Opioid-use disorder was seven times more likely when patients were prescribed a high dose for a long duration, rather than a low dose for a long duration. In addition, 21 percent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) commercially-insured members filled at least one opioid prescription in 2015, according to the report.

 

Health risks

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 614,000 fatalities in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Influenza and pneumonia ranked eighth in 2014, accounting for some 55,000 fatalities. However, pandemic influenza viruses have the potential to be far more deadly. An estimated 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, the deadliest and most infectious known influenza strain to date.