“The U.S. opioid epidemic seems to be taking its biggest toll on the baby boomer and millennial generations, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that since 2010, boomers — born between 1946 and 1964 — have had heightened rates of death from prescription opioids and heroin. Meanwhile, millennials — people in their 20s and 30s — also have been hard hit by heroin overdoses.
“The opioid epidemic has affected everyone,” said senior researcher Dr. Guohua Li. “But what we’re seeing is that these two generations are at highest risk,” said Li, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University.
The study analyzed national vital statistics for the years 1999 to 2014.
Li’s team found that compared with people born in the late-1970s, boomers were up to 27 percent more likely to die of a prescription opioid overdose. And they were up to one-third more likely to die of a heroin overdose.”
Read more at: https://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2017-11-21/opioid-crisis-hitting-boomers-millennials-hardest
Source: USNews.com – November 21, 2017
