Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center have published a study that focuses on counties with a large share of the population employed in the manufacturing sector, finding a link between automobile assembly plant closures and deaths by opioid overdose among working-age adults. Study authors include faculty member (and former Harvard RWJF scholar) Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, and Rourke O’Brien, PhD, also a former Harvard RWJF scholar. Other study authors include: Atheendar Venkataramani, MD, PhD, and Elizabeth Bair, MS.
Is there a link between opioid overdose mortality rates and automobile assembly plant closures in the U.S.?
![Assembly workers work on a Chrysler car at a Michigan plant.](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population-development/wp-content/uploads/sites/2623/2020/01/automobile-assembly-plant_flickr_Fiat-Chrysler-Automobiles-Corporate-836x625.jpg)