According to a study released by the Center on Society and Health, in partnership with the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh,  “deaths of despair”—those related to drugs and alcohol and other causes of death linked to stress—are skyrocketing in rural Northern California and the Central San Joaquin Valley among whites.

According to the study, funded by the California Endowment, while death rates have generally been decreasing in the United States and other industrialized countries, death rates in California have stopped declining among young and middle-aged whites (ages 25-34 years and 40-64 years, respectively) since 2000. The impact of this trend is startling: between 1995 and 2014, increases in death rates in these two age groups from specific causes claimed an estimated 21,350 lives. This trend is consistent with findings from national studies, which also report rising death rates among certain groups of whites, especially those who are middle-aged, have less education, and women.

It is important to note that, while rising death rates—in this case, among whites—are startling and warrant investigation, death rates in certain minority populations continue to be persistently and alarmingly higher than their white counterparts. Even as mortality rates among African Americans in California continue to fall, for example, in 2010-2014 they remained 1.3 times as high as mortality rates for whites. Continued efforts are needed to understand and reduce unnecessarily high death rates among people of color.

The increase in mortality among whites has been attributed to the opioid epidemic, but this study found that it reflects increased death rates from multiple causes, including drug and alcohol overdoses, suicides, and accidents. The research found that the increase in death rates among whites was concentrated among 42 counties in California, most located in largely white, rural counties in northern California or in the Central Valley.

Overall, the leading causes of rising death rates among whites in California include drug and alcohol overdoses, suicides, and accidents, but the rise in death rates from drug and alcohol abuse and suicides is striking.

• Death rates from drug overdoses doubled between 1995 and 2014 among young and middle-aged whites in California.
• Death rates from alcohol poisoning (e.g., binge drinking) more than quadrupled among younger whites and increased by 1163%—more than a 12-fold increase—among those ages 40-64 years.
• The rate of suicides among middle-aged whites increased by 37% after 2000. Hanging, strangulation, or suffocation were the most common forms of non-firearm suicide, doubling in frequency after 1995.

For more information on our California Mortality Study, and details regarding our other projects in Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas, visit https://societyhealth.vcu.edu/work/the-projects/mortality-studies.html.