Research Projects

Impact of Opioid Agonist Therapy on hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who use drugs

Status: Completed

Project Lead: Sofia Bartlett

People who use drugs (PWUD) who are living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are 1.84 times more likely to start Direct Acting Antiviral (DAA) treatment while they are currently receiving Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT), compared to PWUD living with HCV who are not on OAT. We looked at prescription medication dispensation data from 13,803 PWUD with chronic HCV infection in British Columbia (BC) in this study. Specifically, we focused on the period of time when the new DAA medications to treat HCV infection were available in BC, and looked at dispensations of medications for OAT (e.g. methadone, buprenorphine) and DAA medications for HCV treatment. We used a time varying variable for OAT medications, so that the impact of currently receiving OAT on HCV treatment initiation could be determined.