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Full-Text Articles in Health Policy
How Has The Opioid Overdose Crisis Affected Child Maltreatment In The U.S.?, Alexander Chapman
How Has The Opioid Overdose Crisis Affected Child Maltreatment In The U.S.?, Alexander Chapman
Population Health Research Brief Series
This brief summarizes results from a study examining the association between U.S. county-level opioid mortality rates and child maltreatment rates from 2007 to 2017. Places with higher opioid overdose mortality rates have higher rates of child maltreatment. Poverty makes this problem worse - where the proportion of families in poverty increases, the association between fatal opioid overdose rates and child maltreatment also increases. Findings suggest that intervening in opioid use by reducing poverty has the potential to markedly decrease the incidence of child maltreatment.