June 29, 2022
As the first to examine the connection between socioeconomic status and opioid incidents at the national level, the University of Waterloo found that from 2000-2017, poorer Canadians were 3.8 times more likely to die from opioid-related causes than those from the highest economic brackets. Another analysis stated that from 2000-2012, those living in lower-income areas were 4.3 times more likely to be hospitalized and 4.9 times more like to end up in ERs than people from the richest neighbourhoods. The study explains that opioid users in poorer areas have less access to resources, while psychosocial factors like marginalization, discrimination and social isolation seem to be less of a factor in more affluent communities.