Table 3.
Unadjusted and adjusted adverse health care events observed during buprenorphine treatment
| Unadjusted | Adjusted | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||||||
| No therapy (PM=146,939) | Low-intensity (PM=43,435) | High-intensity (PM=21,699) | Low-intensity vs. No therapy | High-intensity vs. No therapy | High-intensity vs. Low-intensity | ||||
|
| |||||||||
| N | Rate per 1000 PM | N | Rate per 1000 PM | N | Rate per 1000 PM | RR (95% CI) | RR (95% CI) | RR (95% CI) | |
|
| |||||||||
| Inpatient | |||||||||
| All-cause | 2919 | 20.7 | 834 | 20.1 | 519 | 25.3 * | 0.92 (0.85, 0.99) | 0.96 (0.87, 1.06) | 1.04 (0.94, 1.17) |
| Opioid-related | 959 | 6.6 | 266 | 6.2 | 240 | 11.3 * | 0.82 (0.71, 0.94) | 1.15 (0.99, 1.34) | 1.40 (1.18, 1.67) |
| Emergency department | |||||||||
| All-cause | 12,402 | 105.6 | 3681 | 110.0 | 2121 | 134.9 * | 1.05 (1.01, 1.09) | 1.16 (1.10, 1.22) | 1.11 (1.05, 1.17) |
| Opioid-related | 1071 | 7.4 | 390 | 9.2 | 280 | 13.3 * | 1.10 (0.98, 1.24) | 1.27 (1.10, 1.46) | 1.15 (0.99, 1.35) |
| Overdose treatment | |||||||||
| Opioids | 333 | 2.3 | 122 | 2.8 | 98 | 4.6 * | 1.03 (0.83, 1.27) | 1.29 (1.01, 1.64) | 1.25 (0.96, 1.64) |
| Non-opioid drugs | 531 | 3.6 | 152 | 3.5 | 106 | 4.9 * | 0.88 (0.73, 1.06) | 0.99 (0.79, 1.23) | 1.13 (0.88, 1.45) |
Abbreviations: PM, person-months; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval
Note: For unadjusted rates, bold font indicates significance at p<0.05 compared to the no therapy group, and
*
indicates significance at p<0.05 compared to the low-intensity therapy group. Adjusted estimates were derived from Cox proportional hazards regression models for each outcome, adjusted for all pre-treatment patient characteristics, initial buprenorphine dosage, and proportion of days covered by buprenorphine from initiation until the event of interest or buprenorphine discontinuation if no event was observed.