Demographic and Clinical Correlates of Treatment Completion among Older Adults with Heroin and Prescription Opioid Use Disorders

ABSTRACT

In this study using 2015–2018 Treatment Episode Data Set-Discharge (TEDS-D) cases age 55+ for heroin (N = 101,524) or prescription opioids (PO; N = 25,510) as the primary substance, we examined treatment completion rates and correlates. We fit separate logistic regression models for heroin and PO cases with treatment completion status (completed vs. discontinued due to dropout/termination/other reasons) for each treatment setting (detoxification, residential rehabilitation, and outpatient) as the dependent variable. Results show that detoxification cases had the highest completion rates and outpatient cases had the lowest (14.8% for heroin and 24.0% for PO cases). A consistently significant correlate of treatment completion was legal system referral for heroin cases and having a bachelor’s degree for PO cases. Medication-assisted therapy was associated with higher odds of completing residential treatment for both types of opioids but lower odds of completing detoxification and outpatient treatment. Treatment duration >30 days tended to have higher odds of completion. PO cases age 65+ had higher odds of completing residential treatment than cases age 55–64. Racial/ethnic minorities tended to have lower odds of outpatient treatment completion. Study findings underscore the importance of helping older adults complete treatment, especially those who are racial/ethnic minorities and receiving outpatient treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• heroin
• opioid use disorder
• substance use treatment
• detoxification
• medication-assisted therapy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grant, [P30AG066614], awarded to the Center on Aging and Population Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin by the National Institute on Aging. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.