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Quality of life as a predictor of time to heroin relapse among male residents following release from compulsory rehabilitation centres in Vietnam
Author(s) -
Vuong Thu,
Ritter Alison,
Shanahan Marian,
Ali Robert,
Nguyen Nhu,
Minh Khue Pham
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/dar.13176
Subject(s) - heroin , medicine , quality of life (healthcare) , relapse prevention , hazard ratio , rehabilitation , proportional hazards model , demography , clinical psychology , physical therapy , psychiatry , drug , confidence interval , nursing , sociology
and Aims Quality of life (QOL) is a relevant and quantifiable outcome of drug dependence treatment. We assessed health‐related QOL for people released from three centre‐based compulsory treatment (CCT) centres in Vietnam, using the EQ‐5D. The study aimed to examine the prognostic value of health‐related QOL in relation to time to relapse to heroin use among the participants. Design and Methods Two hundred and eight CCT participants with heroin dependence were interviewed at release, and at 3, 6 and 12 months post‐release. Health‐related QOL was measured with the EQ‐5D. Kaplan–Meier survival models were fitted using Cox modelling to examine the rate, timing and prediction of the number of days to heroin relapse and to examine the predictability of the health‐related QOL measures for days to relapse. Relapse was defined as first time of heroin use. Results The study found a substantial relapse rate (85.6%) among participants within 12 months following release from CCT centres; the mean number of days to relapse was 57.7 (SD = 31.6). There was no statistically significant change over time in the mean values of health‐related QOL ( P = 0.11). While the total index score (across the five pre‐specified EQ‐5D domains) did not have a significant effect in predicting cumulative relapse, lower scores on the Visual Analogue Scale of the EQ‐5D were significantly ( P < 0.05) predictive of cumulative relapse, with adjusted hazard ratios for relapse of 0.987 ( P = 0.013). Discussion and Conclusions EQ‐5D Visual Analogue Scale score is a useful predictor of cumulative heroin relapse among participants released from CCT centres.