Medications for Opioid Use Disorder and Mortality and Hospitalization Among People With Opioid Use-related Infections.
Epidemiology
; 35(1): 7-15, 2024 Jan 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37820243
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Severe skin and soft tissue infections related to injection drug use have increased in concordance with a shift to heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Opioid agonist therapy medications (methadone and buprenorphine) may improve long-term outcomes by reducing injection drug use. We aimed to examine the association of medication use with mortality among people with opioid use-related skin or soft tissue infections.METHODS:
An observational cohort study of Medicaid enrollees aged 18 years or older following their first documented medical encounters for opioid use-related skin or soft tissue infections during 2007-2018 in North Carolina. The exposure was documented medication use (methadone or buprenorphine claim) in the first 30 days following initial infection compared with no medication claim. Using Kaplan-Meier estimators, we examined the difference in 3-year incidence of mortality by medication use, weighted for year, age, comorbidities, and length of hospital stay.RESULTS:
In this sample, there were 13,286 people with opioid use-related skin or soft tissue infections. The median age was 37 years, 68% were women, and 78% were white. In Kaplan-Meier curves for the total study population, 12 of every 100 patients died during the first 3 years. In weighted models, for every 100 people who used medications, there were four fewer deaths over 3 years (95% confidence interval = 2, 6).CONCLUSION:
In this study, people with opioid use-related skin and soft tissue infections had a high risk of mortality following their initial healthcare visit for infections. Methadone or buprenorphine use was associated with reductions in mortality.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Buprenorphine
/
Soft Tissue Infections
/
Opioid-Related Disorders
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Epidemiology
Journal subject:
EPIDEMIOLOGIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Nueva Caledonia