Research Snapshot: People with overdose history may be at great risk of severe COVID-19 illness
British Columbia (BC) has made significant efforts to respond to two public health emergencies in the past year: one due to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the other due to drug overdoses.
Canadian researchers analyzed provincial data to understand the prevalence of known risk factors associated with death due to COVID-19 among people who had a non-fatal overdose between 2015 and 2017 compared to people who didn’t have an overdose.
The researchers looked at data from the Provincial Overdose Cohort from January 2015 to December 2017.
The Overdose Cohort contains de-identified data (personal information was removed) on people who had an illicit drug overdose in BC. It also includes a 20% random sample of BC residents.
The researchers used statistical methods to compare risk factors by overdose history.