Analysis of Mortality Rate of Illicit Substance Abuse and its Trend in Five Years in Iran, 2014-2018

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 General Practitioner, Department of Neurosciences and Addiction Studies, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Forensic Medicine Specialist, Legal Medicine Research Center, Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran

4 Associate Professor, Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center AND Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Addiction and drug misuse is an illness that affects every community in every country. Based on the previous research in many parts of the world, illicit drug use is considered as a well-known risk factor for morbidity, disability, and premature mortality. Although this issue is a hot topic for public health, little studies have looked the epidemiology of substance abuse death and its trends among Iranian society. This study aims to calculate the rate of substance misuse mortality and investigate its trend in Iran.
Methods:This research was a cross-sectional study. For doing this study, the demographic and epidemiological data of people who died from substance misuse from 2014-2018 were extracted from Legal Medicine Organization (LMO). Finally, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.
Findings: 15304 deaths due to drug misuse were recorded in 2014-2018. The substance abuse mortality rate has increased during the study period in men and women. There were significant differences in death rates between men and women. Crude mortality rate was significantly higher among men compared to women. The majority of deaths has occurred in young men aged 30-39 years with high school education and self-employed.
Conclusion: The results revealed that death from substance misuse has increased during the study period. This increasing trend was observed in women and men. Further preventive measures, however, should be devised to reduce drug-related deaths. The majority of deaths occurred in young men aged 30-39 years with high school education and self-employed. In our opinion and based on the study results, programs, policies, and preventive measures should be taken to prevent these people from accessing and using the drug.

Keywords

References

  1. Al Fardan S. Substance abuse in the United Arab Emirates: Why a needs assessment is necessary [Doctoral Thesis]. Los Angeles, CA: Alliant International University; 2014.
  2. Single E, Rehm J, Robson L, Truong MV. The relative risks and etiologic fractions of different causes of death and disease attributable to alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use in Canada. CMAJ 2000; 162(12): 1669-75.
  3. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). World drug report 2017. [Online]. [cited 2017 May]; Available from: URL:

http://www.unodc.org/wdr2017/

  1. Ghodse H, Oyefeso A, Kilpatrick B. Mortality of drug addicts in the United Kingdom 1967-1993. Int J Epidemiol 1998; 27(3): 473-8.
  2. Hulse GK, English DR, Milne E, Holman CD. The quantification of mortality resulting from the regular use of illicit opiates. Addiction 1999; 94(2): 221-9.
  3. English DR, Holman CDAJ. The Quantification of drug caused morbidity and mortality in Australia: Pages 263-686. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service; 1995.
  4. Ghoreishi SMS, Shahbazi F, Mirtorabi SD, Ghadirzadeh MR, Hashemi Nazari SS. Epidemiological study of mortality rate from alcohol and illicit drug abuse in Iran. J Res Health Sci 2017; 17(4): e00395.
  5. Yanez JL, Del Rio MC, Alvarez FJ. Alcohol-related mortality in Spain. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1993; 17(2): 253-5.
  6. Razzaghi EM, Rahimi Movaghar A, Hosseni M, Madani S, Chatterjee A. Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA) of Drug Abuse in Iran (1998-1999). [Online]. [cited 2000]; Available from: URL: https://www.Un.Org/Ruleoflaw/Files/Rsa2000summary[1].Pdf

10. World Health Organization. Management of
substance abuse [Online]. [cited 2019 Jan 25]; Available from: URL:

https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/en/

11. Sporer KA, Kral AH. Prescription naloxone: A novel approach to heroin overdose prevention. Ann Emerg Med 2007; 49(2): 172-7.

12. Shahbazi F, Mirtorabi SD, Ghadirzadeh MR, Hashemi-Nazari SS, Barzegar A. Characterizing mortality from substance abuse in Iran: An epidemiological study during March 2014 to February 2015. Addict Health 2017; 9(3): 166-74.

13. Day C, Nassirimanesh B, Shakeshaft A, Dolan K. Patterns of drug use among a sample of drug users and injecting drug users attending a General Practice in Iran. Harm Reduct J 2006; 3: 2.

14. Karbakhsh M, Salehian ZN. Acute opiate overdose in Tehran: The forgotten role of opium. Addict Behav 2007; 32(9): 1835-42.

15. Fattore L, Altea S, Fratta W. Sex differences in drug addiction: A review of animal and human studies. Womens Health (Lond) 2008; 4: 51-65.

16. Gfroerer JC, Greenblatt JC, Wright DA. Substance use in the US college-age population: differences according to educational status and living arrangement. Am J Public Health 1997; 87(1): 62-5.

17. Dong KA. Characterizing opioid overdoses in Alberta [PhD Thesis]. Edmonton, AB, Canada: University of Alberta; 2007.

18. Wang C. Mortality study of injection drug users in ALIVE (AIDS linked intravenous experience) cohort [PhD Thesis]. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University; 2004.

19. Darvishi N, Farhadi M, Haghtalab T, Poorolajal J. Alcohol-related risk of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and completed suicide: A meta-analysis. PLoS One 2015; 10(5): e0126870.

20. Henderson DJ. Drug abuse and incarcerated women. A research review. J Subst Abuse Treat 1998; 15(6):
579-87.

21. Poorolajal J, Haghtalab T, Farhadi M, Darvishi N. Substance use disorder and risk of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and suicide death: A meta-analysis. J Public Health (Oxf) 2016; 38(3): e282-e291.

22. Brehm Christensen P, Hammerby E, Smith E, Bird SM. Mortality among Danish drug users released from prison. Int J Prison Health 2006; 2(1): 13-9.

23. Scott KM, Wells JE, Angermeyer M, Brugha TS, Bromet E, Demyttenaere K, et al. Gender and the relationship between marital status and first onset of mood, anxiety and substance use disorders. Psychol Med 2010; 40(9): 1495-505.

24. Valois RF, Dunham ACA, Jackson KL, Waller J. Association between employment and substance abuse behaviors among public high school
adolescents. J Adolesc Health 1999; 25(4): 256-63.

25. Taremian F, Bolhari J, Peyravi H, Asgari A. Drug use prevalence among students of universities of medical sciences in Tehran. Research on Addiction 2014; 7(28): 9-21. [In Persian].

26. Huggins DG, McBride J, Mellor KR. Typodont technique. Orthodontist 1972; 4(2): 78-83.

27. Scherrer JF, Xian H, Pan H, Pergadia ML, Madden PA, Grant JD, et al. Parent, sibling and peer influences on smoking initiation, regular smoking and nicotine dependence. Results from a genetically informative design. Addict Behav 2012; 37(3): 240-7.

28. Dietze P, Cantwell K, Burgess S. Bystander resuscitation attempts at heroin overdose: does it improve outcomes? Drug Alcohol Depend 2002; 67(2): 213-8.

Addiction & Health
Volume 10, Issue 4
December 2018
Pages 260-268

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics