Photo: The Canadian Press
Canadians’ socioeconomic status may make them more susceptible to opioid-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and death.
A new study by the University of Waterloo found that between 2000 and 2017, low-income Canadians were almost four times more likely to die from opioid-related causes than high-income Canadians.
This is the first study to demonstrate this link at the national level, and it does so with data spanning nearly two decades.
According to the study, the findings come at a critical time in Canada.
The same day the report was released, the largest-ever settlement of a government health lawsuit was reached with opioid maker Purdue Pharma Canada to reimburse health care costs related to sales of opiate-based pain medications.
“Opioid-related harm is at crisis levels in Canada,” Wassem Alsabag, a Waterloo professor and lead author of the study, said in a press release.
Opioid-related hospitalizations increased by more than 50 percent between 2007 and 2017, the study found.
More recent data from Statistics Canada shows that number remains high. In 2021, there were approximately 17 hospitalizations per day due to opioid-related poisoning. For comparison, in 2017 there were 14 hospitalized per day.
Additionally, 88 percent of hospitalizations in 2021 were in British Columbia, Alberta or Ontario.
To demonstrate that lower-income areas consistently bear the brunt of opioid-related harm in Canada, researchers obtained information from Statistics Canada and tracked zip codes associated with reported opioid-related incidents.
Although the gap between rich and poor Canadians has narrowed since 2000, it still remains high in 2017, with low-income Canadians 2.5 times more likely to die from opioid use.
“We often see low socioeconomic status in concentrated geographic areas where there is poorer access to resources,” Alsabag said.
“In addition, psycho-social factors such as feelings of marginalization or persistent discrimination and social isolation can have an effect.”
To fill the gap, the study recommends that the makers of targeted health policies consider the psycho-social aspects of socioeconomic status. For example, implementing opioid stewardship and ensuring the creation of new policies with an emphasis on equity.
“By charting the relationship between low socioeconomic status and opioid harm, we can design policies that more appropriately serve the needs of our communities,” Alsabag said.
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