Table 2.
Comparing patient characteristics and treatment utilization among Veterans receiving buprenorphine for OUD before and after COVID-19 related telehealth policy changes
| Pre-COVID-19 telehealth policy changes (3/2019–2/2020) N = 18,012 | Post-COVID-19 telehealth policy changes (3/2020–2/2021) N = 18,182 | p-value | |||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||
| Age in years | 49.4 | 13.9 | 49.3 | 13.9 | 0.72 |
| Age groups | % | N | % | N | |
| 18–29 | 3.4 | 615 | 3.2 | 584 | 0.53 |
| 30–44 | 40.8 | 7,347 | 41.4 | 7,523 | |
| 45–64 | 37.7 | 6,788 | 37.5 | 6,819 | |
| 65+ | 18.1 | 3,262 | 17.9 | 3,256 | |
| Female | 7.9 | 1421 | 7.9 | 1436 | 0.98 |
| Race/Ethnicity | |||||
| White, non-Hispanic | 77.7 | 14,003 | 78.0 | 14,182 | 0.64 |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 11.4 | 2,058 | 11.0 | 2,004 | |
| Hispanic | 5.2 | 942 | 5.2 | 952 | |
| Other/unknown | 5.6 | 1,009 | 5.7 | 1,044 | |
| Rurality | |||||
| Urban | 86.0 | 15,483 | 82.4 | 14,989 | <0.001 |
| Rural | 12.0 | 2,162 | 12.2 | 2,213 | |
| Other/Unknown | 2.0 | 367 | 5.4 | 980 | |
| Patients with ≥ 90 day buprenorphine retention | 49.6 | 8,932 | 47.7 | 8,664 | <0.05 |
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||
| Average days on buprenorphine treatment | 203.8 | 156.0 | 208.7 | 113.7 | <0.001 |
| Number of buprenorphine treatment visits | 5.3 | 3.3 | 5.4 | 3.2 | 0.07 |