Social Vulnerability, Disparities, and the Health Impacts of the Intersecting COVID-19 and Opioid Epidemics on New Jersey Communities

New Jersey has been particularly hard hit by the twin crises of the opioid use disorder (OUD) and COVID-19 epidemics, with disproportionate impacts across communities and subpopulations, including racial/ethnic minorities. To better inform future responses to similar crises, this study will explore community level patterns of selected outcomes related to both epidemics, and the role of geographic, community, demographic, and other factors in these trends. This pilot project will leverage the power of iPHD data to better understand these impacts, including changing patterns of opioid-related adverse events as the COVID-19 epidemic evolved, including overdoses treated in ED/inpatient settings and other acute OUD-related episodes, integrated with analysis of fatal overdoses. A linked iPHD dataset will be merged with community data (including socioeconomic, demographic, and health care access data) to support analysis of longitudinal community-level trends in acute care utilization and mortality for OUD- and COVID-19-related causes; assess variation in these outcomes across NJ communities; and explore the association of these outcomes with community characteristics. This study will enhance contribution of the iPHD data to understanding the impact of the twin crises on NJ communities, through systematic analysis of the linked iPHD/community data to improve understanding of roles of geographic, community, provider supply, demographic and other factors in these trends. These analyses, accompanied by user-friendly presentations of data including maps and a chartbook, will clarify and advance the utility of the data for systematic research, assessment of community needs, and insight into disparities.

This project is funded in memory of Ranjana Madhusudhan, Ph.D., former Chief Economist at the NJ Department of Treasury who served actively as the Treasurer’s designee on the IPHD Governing Board from 2018 until her passing in April 2020.