ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2021
Robustness of estimated access to opioid use disorder treatment providers in rural vs. urban areas of the United States.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Commentary on Friedman et al.: Inequitable improvements and data gaps-A call for better drug surveillance data.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Medications for opioid use disorder, recovery supports, and overdose risk -- a database linkage study of a rural cohort of people who inject drugs and use opioids.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Substance use treatment facility access and utilization among mothers in child welfare.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2026Article
- Rural Clinicians Efforts to Maintain Relationship-Centered Care Amidst Conflicting Tensions with Inherited Opioid Prescribing Practices.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Rurality weakens the positive association between the COVID-19 pandemic and substance use treatment involving medications for opioid use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Travel Time to Methadone Treatment Via Personal Vehicle vs Public Transit.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Variation in the quality of opioid use disorder treatment in the Medicaid population in 2019.PloS one · 2026Article
- Experiences of healthcare providers caring for pregnant individuals with substance use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- A scoping review of interventions addressing social determinants of health and their influence on opioid use disorder outcomes.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Spatial accessibility of substance use disorder treatment programs, compared with other health care facilities, in New York State, 2024.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Referral of patients from rural primary care clinics to telemedicine vendors for opioid use disorder treatment: A mixed-methods study.Journal of telemedicine and telecare · 2025Article
- Problems accessing pain care, and the adverse outcomes among adults with chronic pain: a cross-sectional survey study.Pain management · 2025Article
- Patient centered medication treatment for opioid use disorder in rural Vermont: a qualitative study.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Article
- State Medicaid Policies Governing Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) and MOUD Treatment Use in a Large Sample of People Who Inject Drugs in 20 U.S. States.Substance use & misuse · 2025Article
- Buprenorphine Injection Among Rural Persons Who Inject Drugs.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- An economic analysis of the cost of mobile units for harm reduction, naloxone distribution, and medications for opioid use disorder.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- Rural-urban differences in out-of-network treatment initiation and engagement rates for substance use disorders.Health services research · 2024Article
- Implementation of a rural emergency department-initiated buprenorphine program in the mountain west: a study protocol.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Exploring predictors of substance use disorder treatment engagement with machine learning: The impact of social determinants of health in the therapeutic landscape.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEffective, evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorder are not equally accessible to Americans. Recent studies have found urban/rural disparities in the driving times to the nearest opioid treatment providers. These disparities may be even worse than currently reported in the literature because patients may not be able to obtain appointments with their nearest provider. We examine the robustness of the opioid treatment infrastructure by estimating how driving times to treatment change as provider availability decreases.
methodsWe used public data from the federal government to estimate the driving time from each census tract centroid to the nearest 15 treatment providers. We summarized the median and interquartile range of driving times to increasingly distant providers (i.e., nearest, second nearest, etc.), stratified by urban/rural classification.
resultsThe median driving time to the nearest provider was greater in rural areas than urban areas for both opioid treatment programs (12 min vs 61 min) and buprenorphine-waivered prescribers (5 min vs 21 min). Importantly, driving times in rural areas increased more steeply as nearer providers became unavailable. For example, the increase in driving time between the nearest provider and the fifth nearest provider was much greater in rural areas than in urban areas for both buprenorphine-waivered prescribers (23 min vs 4 min) and for opioid treatment programs (54 min vs 22 min).
conclusionsAccess to treatment for opioid use disorder is more robust in urban areas compared with rural areas. This disparity must be eliminated if the opioid overdose crisis is to be resolved.
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