Health care notebook

’19 overdoses top 70,000 in U.S.

More than 70,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2019, according to newly finalized mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

That’s up almost 5% from the previous year and accounts for a third of the nation’s accidental deaths, a report said. Adults ages 35-44 had the highest death rate, of 40.5 per 100,000. That’s nearly double the overall death rate of 21.5 per 100,000.

Synthetic opioids — such as fentanyl and carfentanil — continued to play a significant role in overdose deaths, but since last year, death rates from cocaine and other stimulants also increased, researchers found.

In Arkansas, public health experts have highlighted growing use of stimulants, particularly methamphetamine, alongside the opioid epidemic.

State-specific overdose death rates had not been updated with 2019 data on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website last week.

In 2018, Arkansas’ overdose death rate was 15.7 per 100,000, among the nation’s lower rates. West Virginia had the highest rate at 51.5 per 100,000 deaths that year.

Study: Abused-kids hospitalizations up

The percentage of emergency department visits for child abuse and neglect that result in hospitalization has grown during the pandemic, according to a new study in a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal.

That’s consistent with what Central Arkansas pediatricians and providers told the newspaper in interviews in August and September. Child-abuse cases have been more severe in the state, they said.

A newspaper published Dec. 11 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that during 2020, there were fewer emergency department visits for child abuse and neglect.

But the percentage of those visits that led to a hospital stay grew, researchers found. The largest increase was in children up to 4 years old, from 3.5% of visits for abuse in 2019 to 5.3% in 2020.

Pandemic effects such as loss of income, increased stress and more substance abuse among adults “increase the risk for child abuse and neglect,” the researchers wrote.

Overall, official reports to child protective services have dropped by at least 20%, attributed to the lack of contact between children and mandatory reporters such as teachers and counselors.