California State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (CA SUDORS)
About CA SUDORS
The California State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (CA SUDORS) is a public health surveillance system for drug-related overdose deaths. Overdose deaths captured by CA SUDORS include only unintentional and undetermined drug-related overdose deaths occurring in the State of California. CA SUDORS collects detailed information from multiple sources to better understand the circumstances surrounding overdose deaths in California.
Overdose data collected as part of CA SUDORS is entered into a CDC web-based platform. This web-based platform is shared with the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). CA SUDORS is currently required by and funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Overdose Data to Action in States (OD2A-S) cooperative agreement.
CA SUDORS data encompasses only a subset of the unintentional and undetermined drug-related overdose deaths that occur in California, as participation in CA is voluntary for CA Medical Examiners/Coroners.
Data Informing Action
SUDORS data provides important contextual information on overdose deaths that can be used to support the facilitation of informed, data-driven prevention strategies. By using information from multiple data sources, SUDORS data is more comprehensive and thus provides more background information on the events leading up to the fatal overdose.
Participate in SUDORS
If you are a local health jurisdiction or Medical Examiner/Coroner (ME/C) office in California and are interested in participating in CA SUDORS please reach out to Cal-Enhanced@cdph.ca.gov for more information. Reimbursement opportunities may be available.
Participation would involve providing case reports (investigation narrative, toxicology report, and autopsy report) for fatal overdose deaths. Data from these reports would be de-identified and abstracted into the surveillance system to be used to inform public health action.
Participating counties are provided with an annual SUDORS county profile report that presents county-level SUDORS data. This report includes information on the circumstances, scene evidence, fatal overdose response, and substances involved for overdose deaths that occurred in the county.
CA SUDORS Data Sources
CA SUDORS collects and combines data from multiple data sources. These include death certificates, medical examiner/coroner (ME/C) investigative narratives, autopsy reports, and toxicology reports. Examples of the types of information obtained from these data sources include (but are not limited to):
Death Certificates
| - Victim demographic data
- Certified cause and manner of death
- Date and place of death
|
Medical Examiner/Coroner (ME/C) Investigative Narratives
| - Narrative of the circumstances surrounding the fatal overdose including descriptions of the overdose scene
- Information on naloxone administration, bystanders present, and emergency response to overdose
- Victim's history of drug use and previous overdoses
|
Toxicology Reports | - Information relating to drugs that were detected and/or contributed to the fatal overdose
|
Autopsy Reports
| - Medical findings and history related to the victim's death
- Other supporting information
|
The level of information provided varies by case and the investigating jurisdiction. All the examples listed above are not always available for every case.
Snapshot of CA SUDORS 2023 Data
In 2023, 19 (32.8%) California counties participated in CA SUDORS. Of the 11,727 unintentional and undetermined drug-related overdose deaths that occurred in California in 2023, we received reports for 4,672 (39.8%) deaths that contained more detailed information on the circumstances surrounding these deaths.
Among the cases from participating counties:
Opioids were detected in
most drug-related overdose deaths (78.2%) and listed as a cause of death (COD)
in 75.8% of drug-related overdose deaths.
|
Most people (85.1%) who
died of drug-related overdoses had a documented history of substance use or
misuse.
|
Over half of overdose
deaths (56.5%) had a potential bystander present.
|
Almost three-quarters (73.0%) of drug-related overdose deaths had at least one potential intervention opportunity before or during the fatal overdose.
|
Among the drug-related overdose deaths that had toxicology information available, over half (55.1%) had both opioids and stimulants detected:
CA SUDORS Data Products
To learn more about unintentional or undetermined drug-related overdose deaths that occurred in California, please refer to the annual CA SUDORS data products. These data products provide an overview of the circumstances surrounding overdose deaths in California for that data year. Please note: CA SUDORS participation and coverage vary year to year. These data products are not comparable by year and the data may not be generalizable to the entire state of California.
Annual CA SUDORS Data Reports
Other Data Products with CA SUDORS Data
Resources
CDC's National SUDORS ProgramCalifornia's Enhanced Surveillance Programs (Cal-Enhanced)
California Overdose Surveillance
Questions
For questions, please contact us at Cal-Enhanced@cdph.ca.gov