Disaggregating Asian-American Mortality in Drug-Related Overdoses and Behavioral Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study

Asian Americans have been historically underrepresented in the national drug overdose discourse due to their lower substance use and overdose rates compared to other racial/ethnic groups. However, aggregated analyses fail to capture the vast diversity among Asian-American subgroups, obscuring critical disparities. We conducted a cross-sectional study between 2018 and 2021 examining Asian-American individuals within the CDC WONDER database with drug overdoses as the underlying cause of death (n = 3195; ICD-10 codes X40–X44, X60–X64, X85, and Y10–Y14) or psychoactive substance–related mental and behavioral disorders as one of multiple causes of death (n = 15,513; ICD-10 codes F10–F19). Proportional mortality ratios were calculated, comparing disaggregated Asian-American subgroups to the reference group (Asian Americans as a single aggregate group). Z-tests identified significant differences between subgroups. Compared to the reference group (0.99