Prescription opioid mortality trends in New York City, 1990-2006: examining the emergence of an epidemic.

Background: The drug overdose mortality rate tripled between 1990 and 2006; prescription opioids have driven this epidemic. We examined the period 1990-2006 to inform our understanding of how the current prescription opioid overdose epidemic emerged in urban areas.

Methods: We used data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to examine changes in demographic and spatial patterns in overdose fatalities induced by prescription opioids (i.

Navigating non-positivity in neighbourhood studies: an analysis of collective efficacy and violence.

Background: In multilevel studies, strong correlations of neighbourhood exposures with individual and neighbourhood confounders may generate problems with non-positivity (ie, inferences that are 'off-support'). The authors used propensity restriction and matching to (1) assess the utility of propensity restriction to ensure analyses are 'on-support' and (2) examine the relation between collective efficacy and violence in a previously unstudied city.

Methods: Associations between neighbourhood collective efficacy and violent victimisation were estimated in data from New York City in 2005 (n=4000) using marginal models and propensity matching.

Policing and risk of overdose mortality in urban neighborhoods.

Background: Accidental drug overdose is a major cause of mortality among drug users. Fears of police arrest may deter witnesses of drug overdose from calling for medical help and may be a determinant of drug overdose mortality. To our knowledge, no studies have empirically assessed the relation between levels of policing and drug overdose mortality.

Investigating the effect of social changes on age-specific gun-related homicide rates in New York City during the 1990s.

Objectives: We assessed whether New York City's gun-related homicide rates in the 1990s were associated with a range of social determinants of homicide rates.

Methods: We used cross-sectional time-series data for 74 New York City police precincts from 1990 through 1999, and we estimated Bayesian hierarchical models with a spatial error term. Homicide rates were estimated separately for victims aged 15-24 years (youths), 25-34 years (young adults), and 35 years or older (adults).

Ambient temperature and risk of death from accidental drug overdose in New York City, 1990-2006.

Background: Mortality increases as ambient temperature increases. Because cocaine affects core body temperature, ambient temperature may play a role in cocaine-related mortality in particular. The present study examined the association between ambient temperature and fatal overdoses over time in New York City.