Prescription opioid overdose deaths continued to increase sharply over the last two decades. It is important to understand the adverse effects of misuse of prescription opioids on the individual’s mental health and U.S. communities. To address this problem, an empirical analysis is conducted to estimate the factors that impact which have impact on the mental disorder related mortality. A county level panel data from 2009 to 2016 for 3134 counties is employed to estimate the link between the misuse of prescription opioid, economic indicators and the mental disorders related mortality. An economic model is created as a function of economics factors, medical factors and availability of mental health services, and demographic factors. This empirical analysis is conducted separately for rural and urban areas and Northeast, South, East, and West regions in the Unites States (U.S.) to involve the changes by geographic variation. The results show that the number of mental disorders related deaths are positively associated with the U.S. opioid prescription rate. The results also find that an increase in the county unemployment rate results in an increase in the mental disorders related mortality per 100,000 people in each county. The findings are mostly hold with both the fixed effect approach and count data approach.
Keywords: healthcare, opioid related deaths, economic develop-ment, health economics
JEL Code: C23, I15, O12,I13
Reference: Odabasi, S. (2020). Link between US Opioid Prescribing Rate, Economic Factors and Risk of Mental Disorders Related Mortality: A Panel Data Study. Current Debates in Social Sciences, InTraders 2020-3, Hiperyayın
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