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Factors from Weather to Farm Income May Be Contributing to Opioid Epidemic, Penn State Study Says

A variety of factors that aren't often part of the discussion may be influencing the ongoing problem of opioid abuse and overdoses in rural areas, according to a study by a Penn State economist. The study looked at the relationship between socioeconomic variables and opioid overdoses and found correlations involving such factors as extreme weather and farm income, Stephan Goetz, Penn State professor of agricultural and regional economics, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development said in a news release.The overprescribing of opioid painkillers over the past few decades is considered to have spurred the epidemic, but other factors are playing a role in contributing to it.They found that a higher number of natural disasters -- primarily weather-related events such as droughts, floods and hurricanes -- experienced in a county correlated with an increase in opioid overdoses. In turn, if climate change produces more extreme weather patterns, it could have an effect on the opioid crisis, Goetz said.The study also found that for each $10,000 reduction in farm income, opioid overdoses increased by 10 percent from a national average of 10.2 deaths per 100,000 people to 11.2 deaths per 100,000. Opioid-related deaths are also on the rise in rural areas.

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