In the pre-epidemic days this blog focused extensively on health care research and particularly on the failure of many interventions to improve quality or health outcomes. That poor record has continued. This study looked at a community-based intervention to reduce opioid deaths. The intervention was randomized to communities in four states. The intervention included overdose education, naloxone (an opioid agonist) distribution, prescription safety and other measures. The study period was a year starting July 2021. While the absolute number of deaths was slightly lower in the intervention communities, the result was not close to statistical significance. For whatever reason, it is very hard to design public health interventions that effectively address pressing health issues. Overdose deaths are an astounding tragedy–over 100,000 a year recently. It would be good to find an effective policy to limit them, maybe like, say, stop illegal immigration at the southern border. (NEJM Article)
