Unintentional deaths from drug poisoning by urbanization of area--New Mexico, 1994-2003.

New Mexico experienced an increase in poisoning deaths during the 1990s and in 2002 was the state with the highest death rate (14.1 per 100,000 population) from unintentional poisoning, more than twice the national rate (6.1). The majority of these unintentional poisoning deaths were caused by ingestion of drugs, including illicit, prescription, and over-the-counter drugs. New Mexico is geographically diverse, with communities ranging from urban centers to sparsely populated counties. To examine the relationship between the types of drugs causing poisoning deaths and the levels of urbanization where the decedents resided, the New Mexico Department of Health analyzed data provided by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) for 1994-2003. All counties in New Mexico were classified as metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas, or as nonstatistical areas, by using 2001-2002 population estimates in accordance with 2003 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classifications. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that deaths from illicit-drug poisoning were twice as likely to occur in metropolitan areas as nonmetropolitan areas (i.e., micropolitan and nonstatistical areas combined). However, deaths from prescription-drug poisoning were most likely to occur in micropolitan and nonstatistical areas. Investigation of drug-poisoning deaths by level of urbanization can be useful to public health programs to prevent unintentional drug-poisoning deaths.