Opioid overdose mortality in Australia, 1964-1997: birth-cohort trends.
OBJECTIVE
To examine trends in rates of opioid overdose deaths from 1964 to 1997 in different birth cohorts.


METHODS
Age-period-cohort analysis of national data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.


METHODS
Annual population rates of death attributed to opioid dependence or accidental opioid poisoning in people aged 15-44 years, by sex and birth cohort (in five-year intervals, 1940-1944 to 1975-1979).


RESULTS
The rate of opioid overdose deaths increased 55-fold between 1964 and 1997, from 1.3 to 71.5 per million population aged 15-44 years. The rate of opioid overdose deaths also increased substantially over the eight birth cohorts, with an incidence rate ratio of 20.70 (95% confidence interval, 13.60-31.46) in the 1975-1979 cohort compared with the 1940-1944 cohort. The age at which the cumulative rate of opioid overdose deaths reached 300 per million fell in successive cohorts (for men, from 28 years among those born 1955-1959 to 22 years among those born 1965-1974; for women, from 33 years among those born 1955-1959 to 27 years among those born 1965-1969).


CONCLUSIONS
Heroin use in Australia largely began in the early 1970s and rates of heroin use have markedly increased in birth cohorts born since 1950.
Hall
W D
WD
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney. w.hall@unsw,edu.com.au
Degenhardt
L J
LJ
Lynskey
M T
MT
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D015331:Cohort Studies; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D003932:Heroin / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009294:Narcotics / Q000009:adverse effects*
D009294:Narcotics; D003932:Heroin