According to a recent analysis, the rate of Black American deaths related to alcohol, drugs, and suicide has surpassed that of white deaths.
The phrase “deaths of despair” became well-known after a groundbreaking study revealed a years-long increase in middle-aged white Americans’ overall cause death rate, which was primarily caused by overdoses from drugs and alcohol, suicide, and other causes.
It was discovered that one important factor linked to this rise was lower educational attainment. Simultaneously, middle-aged Black and Hispanic Americans were becoming less dead.
A major shift in middle-aged adults’ deaths from despair has been observed, according to recent research published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
From 1999 until 2022, the study monitored the death rates among individuals 45 to 54 years old due to drug overdose, alcohol liver disease, and suicide.
According to research, in 2013 there were roughly twice as many deaths among White people as Black people—72.15 per 100,000 versus 36.24 per 100,000.
However, by 2022, middle-aged Black people’s rate of despair-related deaths had almost tripled to 103.81 per 100,000, surpassing the rate for White people, who had 102.63 per 100,000.
The study indicates that the surge in drug overdose deaths among Black people is fueled by this trend.
It also reveals that American Indian or Alaska Native people had a higher rate of deaths from despair than any other racial or ethnic group during every year the study was conducted.
AIANs’ midlife death rate from these causes was 241.7 per 100,000 by 2022; their rate of death from alcoholic liver disease was 108.83 per 100,000, more than six times higher than that of White people.
The study notes that “growing disparities in deaths of hopelessness among Black and American Indian or Alaska Native people were primarily due to disproportionate early mortality from drug- and alcohol-related causes, which increased leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Higher death rates among minority groups, according to study co-author Joseph Friedman of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, also highlight differences in socioeconomic circumstances and limited access to helpful resources like mental health and addiction treatment.
According to him, there are not many differences between the definitions of the relevant causes of death in his study and the earlier, seminal research.
