September 20, 2022
1 min read
Source/Disclosures
Disclosures:
Gomes reports receiving grants paid to support the research program from the Ontario Ministry of Health, a grant paid to support the conduct of the study from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canada Research Chair funding for salary support. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
A timed series analysis of a safer opioid supply program in Ontario, Canada, showed decreased rates of ED visits, hospitalizations and health care costs, researchers reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Tara Gomes, PhD, MHSc, epidemiologist and principal investigator with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network in Canada, and colleagues sought to evaluate the impact of a Canadian safer opioid supply program, which began in 2016.
The program allows individuals at high risk of overdose to be prescribed pharmaceutical opioids as an alternative to a fentanyl-adulterated drug supply, as well as comprehensive health and social support.
Gomes and colleagues conducted a timed series analysis of residents who received a diagnosis of opioid use disorder and entered the program between January 2016 and March 2019. They also had a comparison group of individuals who were matched on demographic and clinical characteristics but were not a part of the program.
The researchers reported decreased rates of ED visits (–14 visits per 100 people; 95% CI, –26 to –2), hospitalizations (–5 per 100 people; 95% CI, –9 to –2) and health care costs (–$922 per person; 95% CI, –$1,577 to –$268) after initial entry into the program.
In the year after program entry, the rate of ED visits (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.53-0.9), hospitalizations (RR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.29-0.74) and health care costs ($15,635 vs. $7,310 per person-year) declined significantly among those in the program compared with the year prior.
“These positive impacts were seen very quickly after entering the program,” Gomes said in a press release from the journal. “We did not see similar changes in a matched group of people with opioid use disorder not enrolled in the program, suggesting that these changes seen in safer supply clients were because of participation in the program and were not influenced by outside factors.”
Gomes and colleagues wrote that their findings “provide preliminary evidence that [safer opioid supply] programs can play an important role in the expansion of treatment and harm reduction options available to people who use drugs at high risk of drug poisoning.”
