Release Date
Geography
Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
To compare time on treatment among individuals initiating buprenorphine/naloxone and methadone and understand how retention varies according to age, sex, and urban/rural residence.
Findings/Key points
7209 (45.8%) initiated buprenorphine/naloxone and 8515 (54.2%) initiated methadone. The median time to treatment discontinuation was significantly shorter among those initiating buprenorphine/naloxone rather than methadone (114 d vs. 263 d). Time on treatment increased with age in both OAT groups, with the exception of those aged 65 and older, where retention declined. Among methadone recipients, time on treatment was longer among rural relative to urban residents, with no variation by sex. Conversely, females treated with buprenorphine/naloxone had significantly longer treatment retention than men, with no variation by urban or rural residence.
Design/methods
We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study among individuals aged 18 years and older, residing in Southern Ontario, Canada, who initiated buprenorphine/naloxone or methadone between October 2016 and December 2018 (N=15,724)
