Table 1.

Characteristics of 3406 people whose deaths were related to opioid use in Ontario between 1991 and 2004

Characteristic	No. (%) of people*
Age, yr, median (IQR)†	40 (34–48)
Sex, male†	2179 (66.6)
Manner of death
Unintentional	1847 (54.2)
Suicide	803 (23.6)
Undetermined	745 (21.9)
Other or missing data	11 (0.3)
Single opioid associated with death‡	2108 (61.9)
Morphine or heroin (or both)§	761 (36.1)
Codeine	431 (20.4)
Methadone	304 (14.4)
Oxycodone	234 (11.1)
Fentanyl	57 (2.7)
Other	321 (15.2)

Note: IQR = interquartile range.

^*Unless stated otherwise.

^†Values for age and sex are based on the 3271 individuals whose files were linked to data on use of health care services.

^‡The remaining 1298 deaths were either associated with a combination of opioids (n = 1251) or the specific opioid(s) could not be determined (n = 47).

^§Morphine is the only detectable metabolite in many heroin-related deaths.