Characteristics of events in which police responded to overdoses: an examination of incident reports in Rhode Island

Table 2 Individual characteristics of 214 people who overdosed in a city in Rhode Island from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020^a

Characteristic		Overall (N = 214)	Police did not administer naloxone (n = 193)	Police administered naloxone (n = 21)	P value
Race	Black	42 (20%)	34 (18%)	8 (38%)	0.05
	White	157 (73%)	146 (76%)	11 (52%)
	Other^b	3 (1%)	2 (1%)	1 (5%)
	Not reported or Unknown	12 (6%)	11 (6%)	1 (5%)
Sex	Male	148 (69%)	133 (69%)	15 (71%)	> 0.99
	Female	65 (30%)	59 (31%)	6 (29%)
	Not reported	1 (1%)	1 (1%)	0 (0%)
Age^c	Median (IQR)	34 (27, 44)	34 [27, 45]	32 [26, 40]	0.63
Arrested	Yes	1 (1%)	0 (0%)	1 (5%)	0.10

^aIncident reports in which demographic information of the person who overdosed could not be extracted (n = 7; 3%) were excluded from analyses. Specifically, there were 4 records in which police collected demographic information from multiple persons on scene, but due to over-redaction, it was unclear which person had overdosed. Police administered naloxone in one of these incidents. There were 3 additional records in which information was collected from one person on scene; however, it was unclear from the record narrative whether the individual from whom demographic information was collected was the person who overdosed. Police did not administer naloxone in these incidents. No persons in these excluded records were arrested
^bOther includes persons racialized as Asian or Native American
^cAge is reported for the person who overdosed in all but 10 records; the field for age was blank in 6 records, redacted in 2 records, and listed as “unknown” in 2 records

ISSN: 1477-7517