More than fourth of Baltimoreans know someone who died of overdose
In Baltimore, Black residents tend to be hit the hardest by public health crises, but results from a community survey released Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University show that income level and educational attainment are more powerful than race at predicting whether a Baltimorean has lost someone close to them from a drug overdose.
The research brief cites results from the Baltimore Area Survey — a new annual survey of people living in the city and Baltimore County run by the Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative. Last year, researchers surveyed 818 city residents and 534 county residents on two questions:
- Have you ever experienced the death of a loved one as the result of a drug overdose?
- How many people do you personally know who are addicted to illegal drugs, such as non-prescription painkillers, heroin or other opioids?
Overall, according to the survey, about 28.5% of Baltimore-area residents have lost someone close to them from a drug overdose — a share roughly on par with national survey data, which found about a third of Americans know someone who died of an overdose. About 19% of Americans reported that the person they lost was a family member or friend.
In 2022, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a higher rate of Black Baltimoreans died of an overdose than white Baltimoreans — 158 per 100,000 residents, compared with 116 per 100,000 residents.
However, Hopkins researchers found no statistical significance in the difference between Black and white Baltimore-area residents who have lost a loved one due to a drug overdose — 31% and 28%, respectively, according to Tuesday’s research brief. The difference is within the survey’s margin of error.
Nonetheless, Black residents were more than twice as likely as white residents to report knowing three or more people with an addiction to illegal drugs — 22% compared with 9%.
“Given that there was no racial difference in experiences of overdose losses,” the report said, “it is possible that the difference may be due to White residents being less aware that friends and family have a substance use disorder.”
The difference between people of varying levels of income and educational attainment was far more dramatic.
Baltimore-area residents with less than a high school degree were almost four times more likely to report losing a loved one to overdose than residents with a professional degree, according to survey results.
Researchers found similar differences in the number of people with a drug addiction who residents reported to know — people with less than a high school degree were six times more likely to report knowing three or more people struggling with substance use disorder than those with a professional degree.
Residents living in households with incomes less than $30,000 also were especially likely to report having lost a loved one to an overdose or to know people struggling with addiction. More than 40% of Baltimore’s poorest residents have lost someone close to them to an overdose, compared to slightly over 15% of residents living in households with incomes of $110,000 or more.
The local gulf between income levels, while reflective of national trends, is striking, said Michael Bader, faculty director of the 21st Century Cities Initiative and lead author of Tuesday’s research brief. The difference likely can be explained in part by the fact that low-income people have been hit harder than middle and upper-income people by the opioid crisis and are more likely to die from an overdose, he said.
But 15% — the approximate share of Baltimoreans living in households with incomes of $110,000 or more who have lost a loved one to substance use disorder — is still a lot of people, Bader said.
“It’s not that rich people aren’t dealing with it,” he said. “It’s that they’re dealing with it — but the poor folks in the Baltimore area are dealing with it even more.”
Bader hopes that those who read Tuesday’s survey walk away with a broader understanding of the ripple effects caused by drug overdose deaths — and empathy for those affected, either directly or indirectly, by the epidemic. Knowing how many people have been affected by the opioid crisis also could help officials better target resources to those grieving the loss of a loved one, Bader said.
“It’s important to try to understand how we can build out data to understand our city and the area better,” he said. “It’s not going to be a total antidote to the problems plaguing politics, but I do think that having at least a shared understanding of what’s going on in the area can be helpful as a starting point to really try to debate what the issues are.”
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