J Travis Donahoe, Julie M Donohue, Brendan K Saloner
{"title":"Disparities in Medication Use for Criminal Justice System-Referred Opioid Use Disorder Treatment.","authors":"J Travis Donahoe, Julie M Donohue, Brendan K Saloner","doi":"10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.2807","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Importance: </strong>Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) and criminal justice system involvement experience high rates of overdose death. Historical data point to limited use of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in criminal justice system-referred treatment for OUD as playing a role. However, how MOUD use among those referred to treatment by the criminal justice system has changed relative to other referral sources over time is still unclear, as well as how it varies across states.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To examine disparities in the use of MOUD between individuals referred to treatment by the criminal justice system compared to other referral sources over time.</p><p><strong>Design, setting, and participants: </strong>This cross-sectional study included admissions to specialty substance use treatment facilities for OUD in the national Treatment Episodes Dataset-Admissions from 2014 to 2021. Logistic regression models were used to examine trends in the probability of MOUD use among individuals with and without criminal justice referrals for OUD treatment, as well as any differential trends by state. The data were analyzed from September 2023 to August 2024.</p><p><strong>Main outcome and measure: </strong>The main outcome was the probability that treatment for individuals with OUD included MOUD.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 3 235 445 admissions were analyzed in the study data. Among individuals referred to OUD treatment by the criminal justice system, the probability that treatment included MOUD increased by 3.42 percentage points (pp) (95% CI, 3.37 pp to 3.47 pp) annually from 2014 to 2021. This was faster than the increase in the probability of MOUD use for noncriminal justice-referred admissions (2.49 pp [95% CI, 2.46 pp to 2.51 pp) and reduced, but did not eliminate, disparities in MOUD use between individuals with and without criminal justice system-referred treatment. In 2021, only 33.6% of individuals in criminal justice system-referred treatment received MOUD, 15.6 pp lower than for individuals referred to treatment by other sources. Trends in the probability of MOUD use varied substantially for individuals in criminal justice system-referred treatment across states, but very few experienced enough growth to eliminate this disparity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions and relevance: </strong>The results of this cross-sectional study suggest that targeted efforts to address persistent disparities in MOUD use among those with OUD and criminal justice system involvement are needed to address the poor health outcomes experienced by this population.</p>","PeriodicalId":53180,"journal":{"name":"JAMA Health Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11380100/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JAMA Health Forum","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.2807","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Importance: Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) and criminal justice system involvement experience high rates of overdose death. Historical data point to limited use of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in criminal justice system-referred treatment for OUD as playing a role. However, how MOUD use among those referred to treatment by the criminal justice system has changed relative to other referral sources over time is still unclear, as well as how it varies across states.
Objective: To examine disparities in the use of MOUD between individuals referred to treatment by the criminal justice system compared to other referral sources over time.
Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study included admissions to specialty substance use treatment facilities for OUD in the national Treatment Episodes Dataset-Admissions from 2014 to 2021. Logistic regression models were used to examine trends in the probability of MOUD use among individuals with and without criminal justice referrals for OUD treatment, as well as any differential trends by state. The data were analyzed from September 2023 to August 2024.
Main outcome and measure: The main outcome was the probability that treatment for individuals with OUD included MOUD.
Results: A total of 3 235 445 admissions were analyzed in the study data. Among individuals referred to OUD treatment by the criminal justice system, the probability that treatment included MOUD increased by 3.42 percentage points (pp) (95% CI, 3.37 pp to 3.47 pp) annually from 2014 to 2021. This was faster than the increase in the probability of MOUD use for noncriminal justice-referred admissions (2.49 pp [95% CI, 2.46 pp to 2.51 pp) and reduced, but did not eliminate, disparities in MOUD use between individuals with and without criminal justice system-referred treatment. In 2021, only 33.6% of individuals in criminal justice system-referred treatment received MOUD, 15.6 pp lower than for individuals referred to treatment by other sources. Trends in the probability of MOUD use varied substantially for individuals in criminal justice system-referred treatment across states, but very few experienced enough growth to eliminate this disparity.
Conclusions and relevance: The results of this cross-sectional study suggest that targeted efforts to address persistent disparities in MOUD use among those with OUD and criminal justice system involvement are needed to address the poor health outcomes experienced by this population.
期刊介绍:
JAMA Health Forum is an international, peer-reviewed, online, open access journal that addresses health policy and strategies affecting medicine, health, and health care. The journal publishes original research, evidence-based reports, and opinion about national and global health policy. It covers innovative approaches to health care delivery and health care economics, access, quality, safety, equity, and reform.
In addition to publishing articles, JAMA Health Forum also features commentary from health policy leaders on the JAMA Forum. It covers news briefs on major reports released by government agencies, foundations, health policy think tanks, and other policy-focused organizations.
JAMA Health Forum is a member of the JAMA Network, which is a consortium of peer-reviewed, general medical and specialty publications. The journal presents curated health policy content from across the JAMA Network, including journals such as JAMA and JAMA Internal Medicine.