Table 2.

All-cause and cause-specific mortality rates in older (≥50 years) opioid use disorder, younger (<50 years) opioid use disorder and older (≥50 years) no opioid use disorder VA patients, FY2000–2011

	Older opioid use disorder (n=36,608; 186,750 py)		Younger opioid use disorder (n=23,662; 161,374 py)		Older no opioid use disorder (n=36,608; 192,999 py)
Cause of deatha	N (%) deaths	CMR per 1,000 py (95% CI)	N (%) deaths	CMR per 1,000 py (95 % CI)	N (%) deaths	CMR per 1,000 py (95% CI)
All cause	6,754 (100)	36.2 (35.3, 37.0)	2,632 (100)	16.3 (15.7, 16.9)	4,407 (100)	22.8 (22.2, 23.5)
Drug-related	659 (9.8)	3.5 (3.3, 3.8)	676 (25.7)	4.2 (3.9, 4.5)	79 (1.8)	0.4 (0.3, 0.5)
Accidental drug-related	562 (8.3)	3.0 (2.8, 3.3)	551 (20.9)	3.4 (3.1, 3.7)	61 (1.4)	0.3 (0.2, 0.4)
Suicide	149 (2.2)	0.8 (0.7, 0.9)	132 (5.0)	0.8 (0.7, 1.0)	75 (1.7)	0.4 (0.3, 0.5)
Violence	35 (0.5)	0.2 (0.1, 0.3)	49 (1.9)	0.3 (0.2, 0.4)	18 (0.4)	0.09 (0.06, 0.1)
Accidental injuries	193 (2.9)	1.0 (0.9, 1.2)	100 (3.8)	0.6 (0.5, 0.7)	113 (2.6)	0.6 (0.5, 0.7)
Cancer	1,518 (22.5)	8.1 (7.7, 8.5)	305 (11.6)	1.9 (1.7, 2.1)	1,240 (28.1)	6.4 (6.1, 6.8)
HIV	124 (1.8)	0.7 (0.6, 0.8)	92 (3.5)	0.6 (0.5, 0.7)	47 (1.1)	0.2 (0.2, 0.3)
Cardiovascular disease	1,711 (25.3)	9.2 (8.7, 9.6)	523 (19.9)	3.2 (3.0, 3.5)	1,367 (31.0)	7.1 (6.7, 7.5)
Liver-related	1000 (14.8)	5.4 (5.0, 5.7)	375 (14.2)	2.3 (2.1, 2.6)	349 (7.9)	1.8 (1.6, 2.0)
Chronic respiratory disease	411 (6.1)	2.2 (2.0, 2.4)	79 (3.0)	0.5 (0.4, 0.6)	254 (5.8)	1.3 (1.2, 1.5)
Respiratory infections	103 (1.5)	0.6 (0.5, 0.7)	26 (1.0)	0.2 (0.1, 0.2)	71 (1.6)	0.4 (0.3, 0.5)
Diabetes	181 (2.7)	1.0 (0.8, 1.1)	72 (2.7)	0.4 (0.3, 0.6)	199 (4.5)	1.0 (0.9, 1.2)

^aCauses of death are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive.

CMR: crude mortality rate. py: person-years. CI: confidence interval. Sex-disaggregated data are provided in the Supplementary Materials².