Today, Grand Valley State University shared the results of a new report which analyzes health data in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties and compares it to data from across the state and country.

11th annual Health Check report found that the number of opioid prescriptions written across the state has declined, but the number of deaths by drug overdose has increased.

Opioid prescriptions per 100 people:

  • In Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties the prescription rate reached a high of 1.5 per capita in 2013, then declined to 0.64 prescriptions in 2017.
  • In Detroit, prescriptions peaked at more than 1 prescription per capita in 2012, before falling to 0.76 per capita in 2017.

Overdose death rates, from all drugs, per 100,000 people:

  • In Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties the rate remained steady at 18 deaths.
  • In Detroit, the rate increased to 34 in 2017.

Suicide rates per 100,000 people:

  • In Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties the rate decreased from 15.4 per 100,000 people in 2014 to 13 per 100,000 in 2017.
  • Detroit recorded about 13 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017.

Other findings from 2017 data:

  • In Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties about 16 percent of people smoked cigarettes. 19 percent of people smoked cigarettes in Detroit. Both numbers are down from 2014.
  • In Kent County, 5.6 percent used e-cigarettes.
  • In Wayne County, 3.8 percent used e-cigarettes.
  • In Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties one-third of people were overweight and one-third were obese. Detroit also had one-third overweight and one-third obese.
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