Primary Submission Category: Health care/services
Buprenorphine Misinformation and Health Care Professional Willingness to Treat Patients with Opioid Use Disorder
Authors: Berkeley Franz Lindsay Dhanani Trent Hall Daniel Brook William Miller
Presenting Author: Berkeley Franz*
Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are critical tools to reduce overdose and infectious disease transmission. But MOUD, especially buprenorphine, are grossly underused as few health care professionals (HCPs) are willing to work with this patient population. The single greatest obstacle to extensive MOUD use is stigma, including among HCPs. In this study, we assess how often physicians in Ohio endorse misinformation related to buprenorphine and whether this is associated with willingness to provide care to patients with OUD. We surveyed primary care physicians currently practicing in Ohio in late 2022 related to their current attitudes on and practices for the management of opioid use disorder (n=409). We utilized a previous validated 5-item measure of provider willingness to treat patients with OUD and a new 4-item measure of misinformation related to buprenorphine, in addition to provider demographics and explicit measures of bias toward patients with OUD. We computed descriptive and bivariate statistics and calculated a regression model predicting willingness to treat patients with OUD. On average, HCPs scored 2.25/5 on the composite measure of buprenorphine misinformation. The mostly commonly endorsed stereotype about buprenorphine was that its use simply substitutes one drug for another (M=2.45). HCP endorsement of buprenorphine misinformation was significantly and negatively correlated with willingness to work with patients with OUD, intentions to increase time spent with this patient population, naloxone prescribing, and intention to get an X waiver. In a multivariable regression model, endorsing buprenorphine misinformation was significantly associated with a decrease in HCP willingness to treat patients with OUD, independent of provider demographics and explicit attitudes toward patients with OUD. Interventions to increase MOUD use among HCPs should aim to increase knowledge about MOUD and specifically target misinformation related to buprenorphine.