Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of 820 people who use drugs and initiated opioid agonist treatment during follow-up, stratified by ≥ daily cannabis use, Vancouver, Canada (1996-2016)
| Characteristic | Total, n (%) (N = 820) |
≥Daily cannabis use, n (%)* |
p - value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes (n = 139) |
No (n = 681) |
|||
| Socio-demographics | ||||
| Age (med, IQR) | 38 (30–45) | 35 (29–42) | 39 (31–46) | 0.006† |
| Male gender | 474 (57.8) | 93 (67.0) | 381 (56.0) | 0.017 |
| Caucasian ethnicity | 487 (59.4) | 89 (64.0) | 398 (58.4) | 0.222 |
| ≥High school education | 542 (66.1) | 93 (66.9) | 449 (65.9) | 0.998 |
| HIV positive | 264 (32.2) | 46 (33.1) | 218 (32.1) | 0.804 |
| Substance use-related factors* | ||||
| ≥Daily heroin injection | 360 (43.9) | 57 (41.0) | 303 (44.5) | 0.426 |
| ≥Daily prescription opioid use | 65 (7.9) | 15 (10.8) | 50 (7.3) | 0.175 |
| ≥Daily cocaine injection | 160 (19.5) | 29 (20.9) | 131 (19.2) | 0.659 |
| ≥Daily crack use | 228 (27.8) | 45 (32.3) | 183 (26.9) | 0.170 |
| Heavy alcohol use | 332 (40.5) | 62 (44.6) | 270 (39.6) | 0.284 |
| Social-structural factors* | ||||
| Homeless | 187 (22.8) | 27 (19.4) | 160 (23.5) | 0.293 |
| Incarceration | 194 (23.7) | 23 (16.5) | 171 (25.5) | 0.030 |
| Calendar year of OAT initiation | ||||
| 1996-2000 | 201 (24.5) | 15 (10.8) | 186 (27.3) | |
| 2001-2005 | 232 (28.3) | 59 (42.5) | 173 (25.4) | |
| 2006-2010 | 218 (26.6) | 27 (19.4) | 191 (28.1) | |
| 2011-2016 | 169 (20.6) | 38 (27.3) | 131 (19.2) | |
OAT, opioid agonist therapy
*
Refers to the 6-month period prior to OAT initiation
†
Wilcoxon rank sum test