(P24-075-23) Secondary Data Analysis Reveals That Food Insecurity Is Positively Correlated With Poverty and Drug Overdose Deaths in the US

Objectives: More than 932,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose in the U.S., and there were 92,000 drug overdose deaths in 2020. Drug misuse and related deaths are becoming a major public health crisis in the US. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between food insecurity with poverty and drug overdose death.

Methods: We used keywords such as “food insecurity, drug overdose death, poverty, and trends in the USA” to search through Google.com. Publicly available data identified in this project were from CDC, DATAUSA, and FeedingAmerica.org. These datasets include information by county, state, total deaths, drug overdose deaths, drug types, food insecurity levels, and poverty status. The population data were integrated using Python. For the study's timeline (1999-2020), some data wasn't available for certain years. The data was analyzed and visualized in Tableau software (www.tableau.com). Three interactive dashboards and their QR codes were made. R2 and P values were also calculated using the software.

Results: The food insecurity severity and drug overdose death rate (death per 100,000 people) were higher in some areas (counties and/or states) than in others. The food insecurity severity is positively correlated with the poverty rate and drug overdose death rate (all p values < 0.001). However, it varied by state. In recent years, the trend of food insecurity and drug overdose deaths has increased. Furthermore, opioids, fentanyl, and stimulants were the most popularly used drugs identified in this study.

Conclusions: Through this study, it is concluded that food insecurity is positively correlated with poverty and drug overdose death, particularly in high food insecurity and poverty areas. The cause and effect of food insecurity on drug overdose death need further investigation.

Funding Sources: None