ArticleHarm reduction journal2023
Is use of opioid agonist treatment associated with broader primary healthcare use among men with recent injecting drug use histories following release from prison? A prospective cohort study.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Best practice guidelines for viral hepatitis service delivery in prisons.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Health, Social and Recidivism Outcomes Among People Who Have Been Incarcerated in New South Wales, Australia: Study Protocol and Cohort Profile for the Prison Outcomes STudy (POST).Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Article
- Experiences of People Who Discontinue Long-Acting Injectable Buprenorphine Treatment Recently Released From Prison in New South Wales, Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Quantifying the impact of a large-scale opioid agonist treatment program on suicide prevention in New South Wales, Australia: A data-modeling study.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- National consensus statement on opioid agonist treatment in custodial settings.The Medical journal of Australia · 2025Article
- Article
- Higher methadone dose at time of release from prison predicts linkage to maintenance treatment for people with HIV and opioid use disorder transitioning to the community in Malaysia.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA precipitous decline in health status among people recently released from prison is common. In Victoria, Australia, opioid agonist treatment (OAT) in the community involves frequent contact with primary care, potentially facilitating broader use of primary healthcare services. Among a cohort of men who injected drugs regularly pre-imprisonment, we estimated differences in rates of primary healthcare use and medication dispensation between people who did and did not receive OAT post-release.
methodsData came from the Prison and Transition Health Cohort Study. Three-month post-release follow-up interviews were linked with primary care and medication dispensation records. Generalised linear models were fit with one exposure (OAT: none/partial/complete) for 13 outcomes relating to primary healthcare use, pathology testing, and medication dispensation, adjusted for other covariates. Coefficients were reported as adjusted incidence rate ratios (AIRR).
resultsAnalyses included 255 participants. Compared to no OAT use, both partial and complete OAT use were associated with increased rates of standard (AIRR: 3.02, 95%CI: 1.88-4.86; AIRR: 3.66, 95%CI: 2.57-5.23), extended (AIRR: 2.56, 95%CI: 1.41-4.67; AIRR: 2.55, 95%CI: 1.60-4.07) and mental health-related (AIRR: 2.71, 95%CI: 1.42-5.20; AIRR: 2.27, 95%CI: 1.33-3.87) general practitioner (GP) consultations, total medication (AIRR: 1.88, 95%CI: 1.19-2.98; AIRR: 2.40, 95%CI: 1.71-3.37), benzodiazepine (AIRR: 4.99, 95%CI: 2.81-8.85; AIRR: 8.30, 95%CI: 5.28-13.04) and gabapentinoid (AIRR: 6.78, 95%CI: 3.34-13.77; AIRR: 4.34, 95%CI: 2.37-7.94) dispensations, respectively. Partial OAT use was also associated with increased after-hours GP consultations (AIRR: 4.61, 95%CI: 2.24-9.48) and complete OAT use? with increased pathology utilisation (e.g. haematological, chemical, microbiological or immunological tissue/sample testing; AIRR: 2.30, 95%CI: 1.52-3.48).
conclusionWe observed higher rates of primary healthcare use and medication dispensation among people who reported partial and complete OAT use post-release. Findings suggest that access to OAT post-release may have a collateral benefit in supporting broader health service utilisation, underscoring the importance of retention in OAT after release from prison.
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