NCJ Number
167728
Journal
Journal of the American Medical Association Volume: 266 Issue: 16 Dated: (October 23/30, 1991) Pages: 2233-2237
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study compared the number of cocaine-related deaths reported to national vital statistics and the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) from 25 metropolitan areas during the 1983-1988 period and also compared cocaine-related mortality data reported to national vital statistics with data from all published forensic case series of cocaine-related deaths that occurred during the mid-1980's.
Abstract
The study objective was to assess the validity of cocaine- related mortality data available from primary Federal sources of information about the frequency of drug abuse deaths in the United States. During the 6-year study period, 75 percent more cocaine-related deaths were reported to DAWN (n=6,057) than to national vital statistics (n=3,466) from the 25 metropolitan areas. For individual metropolitan areas, the discrepancy between DAWN and national vital statistics counts of cocaine-related deaths was as large as a sixfold difference. In six of the seven forensic case series identified in the literature search, the number of cocaine-related deaths exceeded the number of these deaths reported to national vital statistics. The largest discrepancy was for cocaine-related deaths in New York City, during a 10-month period in 1986 for which 151 deaths were reported in a case series and 7 deaths were reported to national vital statistics. The authors conclude improvements in existing public health surveillance systems are needed for full and accurate measurements of the lethal impact of drug abuse epidemics and for valid and comprehensive assessments of the effectiveness of national programs designed to prevent drug- related morbidity and mortality. 42 references, 2 tables, and 1 figure