Source: WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2018-2021
To what degree has your life been negatively affected by YOUR OWN or SOMEONE ELSE’s substance abuse issues, including alcohol, prescription, and other drugs? Would you say: (a great deal to not at all)
Approximately half (47%) of adults in WNC report that their lives have been negatively affected by substance abuse (by self or someone else). The following adult populations were significantly more likely to report that their lives have been negatively affected by substance abuse in 2021:
(WNCHN – WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2021)
Differences in health outcomes across social groups, economic status, and racial/ethnic identity are closely linked with disparities in social determinants of health, which disproportionately burden individuals and communities who experience systemic disadvantage and/ or discrimination. See our data story on the social determinants of health to learn more about how the conditions in which people are born, live, work, play, learn, worship, and age can influence their ability to achieve good health for themselves and their families.
Source: WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2018-2021
(WNCHN – WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2021)
Source: WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2018-2021
(WNCHN – WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2021)
(WNCHN – WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2021)
Excessive drinking reflects the number of persons aged 18 years and over who drank more than two drinks per day on average (for men) or more than one drink per day on average (for women) OR who drank 5 or more drinks during a single occasion (for men) or 4 or more drinks during a single occasion (for women) during the past 30 days.
Explore the NC Alcohol Data Dashboard for more data on excessive alcohol use, related public health strategies, alcohol outlet density, alcohol consumption rates, immediate- and long-term impacts of excessive use, and cost to communities.
From 1999 to 2016 more than 12,000 North Carolinians died from opioid-related overdoses.
Excessive alcohol use is the third leading preventable cause of death in North Carolina.
Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the US. From 1999 to 2016, more than 630,000 people have died from a drug overdose.
Around 66% of the more than 63,600 drug overdose deaths in 2016 involved an opioid.
In 2016, the total estimated economic burden of opioid use disorder and overdose deaths in North Carolina exceeded 21 billion dollars.
Source: WNCHN – Online Key Informant Survey, 2018
The information in this section should be interpreted and used with care. It should be used only to help local health departments and agencies begin to understand community perceptions about local health issues. Communities are strongly encouraged to collect their own, local-level data to inform local planning and evaluation activities.
“Law enforcement leadership, combined with government and healthcare leadership, to tackle the issue as a whole. There has also been effective communication about current efforts.”
“Commitment of leaders to work on the problem; growing awareness of the extent of the problem.”
“There are many stakeholders so with that much attention – Regionally, statewide, and nationally, we are starting to see some collaboration.”
“Stigma around who uses/abuses substances still exists in all levels of the community, including law enforcement, which causes many who are struggling with addiction to shy away from help, out of shame.”
The western North Carolina region includes 17 communities: 16 counties and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI)
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