OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to assess racial disparities within the Cincinnati region with respect to the length of time to obtain treatment, and planned medication-assisted therapy for the treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD).

METHODS

The Treatment Episode Data Set – Admissions from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration was used to identify a cohort of eligible individuals. All 2017 admissions with a primary substance use of opioids, including opioid derivatives, were included. The data were stratified by ethnicity: Caucasian, African-American, and Other. Logistic regression models were performed to assess the differences by race for treatment wait time and type of planned treatment. Model covariates included patient demographics and socioeconomic characteristics.

RESULTS

A total of 3,298 individuals were identified with 3,102 Caucasian, 123 African-Americans, and 73 Other. There were statistically significant differences between Caucasians, African-Americans, and Other for all patient characteristics and socio-economic factors with the exception of unemployment. The rate of treatment admissions per 1,000 for Caucasians, African-Americans, and Other was 1.71, 0.42, and 0.73, respectively. The overwhelming majority of individuals did not have planned medication assisted therapy at the time of admission (range: 73% to 89%). The percentage of individuals waiting 0-7 days for treatment was 70% for Caucasians, 89% for African-Americans, and 71% for Other. One logistic regression model found that Caucasians and Other had an increased likelihood of receiving planned medication-assisted therapy (OR 1.89, p-value 0.039; OR 7.07, p-value 0.002, respectively) compared to African-Americans. However, these results were sensitive to model specification. There was not a statistically significant difference in the likelihood of waiting time to receive treatment by race.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on one-year of data there does not appear to be a disparity in treatment type or length of time to receive treatment for OUD in the Cincinnati region.