Social Determinants of Health and Fentanyl Overdose Mortality Across US Counties: An XGBoost and SHAP Analysis Identifying Silent Risk Counties and Treatment Deserts

ArXi:2605.08230v1 Announce Type: new Background: Fentanyl overdose deaths are still increasing across the U. S. We do not fully understand which county-level social and structural conditions lead to higher overdose death rates. Social determinants of health, including disability, treatment access, and behavioral health issues, may help identify vulnerable counties before deaths become severe. No earlier study has used explainable machine learning with SHAP attribution on 2022 CDC WONDER data to study treatment access gaps and silent risk counties.