Racial inequity in medication treatment for opioid use disorder: Exploring potential facilitators and barriers to use

Despite evidence that individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) have a lower risk of mortality when using evidence-based medications for OUD (MOUD), only 20 % of people with OUD receive MOUD. Black patients are significantly less likely than White patients to initiate MOUD. We measured the association between various facilitators and barriers to initiation, including criminal justice, human services, and health care factors, and variation in initiation of MOUD by race.

We used data from a comprehensive, linked data set of health care, human services, and criminal justice programs from Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania to measure disparities in MOUD initiation by race in the first 180 days after an OUD diagnosis, as well as mediation by potential facilitators and barriers to treatment, among Medicaid enrollees. This is a cross-sectional analysis.

Among 6374 Medicaid enrollees who met study criteria, Black enrollees were 18.2 percentage points less likely than White enrollees to start MOUD after controlling for gender, age, and Medicaid eligibility (95 % CI: -21.5 % - -14.8 %). Each day in the emergency department or county jail was associated with a decrease in the likelihood of initiation, as was the presence of a non-OUD substance use disorder diagnosis or participation in intensive non-MOUD treatment. Mediators accounted for approximately one-fifth of the variation in initiation related to race.

Acute care facilities and settings in which people with OUD are incarcerated may have an opportunity to increase the use of MOUD overall and close the racial gap in initiation.