Drug and alcohol deaths increasing among US adults 65 and older, CDC says

(CNN) - Deadly drug misuse and alcohol abuse appear to be on the rise among older Americans, according to two new reports released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Death rates from drug overdoses among adults 65 and older have more than tripled in the past two decades, increasing more among men than women between 2000 and 2020.

The data also showed some racial differences, suggesting that alcohol-induced death rates in adults 65 and older were highest for American Indian or Alaska Native adults, followed by Hispanic, white, Black and Asian adults. Non-Hispanic Black men 65 and older had higher drug overdose death rates than white and Hispanic men, while white women 75 and older had the highest rate of death from drug overdoses.

Researchers didn’t analyze what factors could be driving the increases, but say it is not unreasonable to think that the forces affecting younger people also affect people 65 and older.