Persons from racial and ethnic minority groups receiving medication for opioid use disorder experienced increased difficulty accessing harm reduction services during COVID-19

Original research
by
Rosales, Robert et al

Release Date

2021

Geography

USA

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

Yes

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

No

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

We tested the hypothesis that persons receiving medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) who self-identify as from racial/ethnic minority groups would experience more disruptions in access to harm reduction services than persons identifying as non-Hispanic White, even when controlling for severity of opioid use and sociodemographics (e.g., education, income, biological sex, age).

Findings/Key points

Logistic regressions indicated that persons identifying as from racial/ethnic minority groups were 8–10 times more likely than persons identifying as non-Hispanic White to report reduced access to naloxone and sterile syringes (p  .01), even when accounting for potential confounding variables.

Design/methods

Analyses used data (n=133) from a cluster randomized trial that had enrolled 188 patients, all of whom had provided baseline data on sociodemographics and severity of opioid use, across eight opioid treatment programs.

Keywords

Equity
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