Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) Study

MOUD study objectives

The objectives of this 18-month observational cohort study in outpatient settings without random assignment to OUD treatment were to:

1. Identify factors that influence the type of OUD treatment offered to patients and the patient's treatment choice.
2. Better understand patient and outpatient treatment facility factors associated with key OUD treatment outcomes.
3. Identify relevant antecedents or co-occurring conditions that could be addressed through primary prevention.
4. Inform evidence-based practices and OUD treatment policies.

Types of data

The collected data are available for the public to access. The publicly available data from the MOUD Study include:

• Type of OUD treatment
• Substance use
• Drug overdose
• Health-related quality of life
• Socioeconomic status
• Side effects (e.g., patients reported experiencing an adverse reaction to the current or most recent MOUD treatment)
• Resources utilization (e.g., patients reported receiving peer-to-peer recovery support services)
• COVID-related information (e.g., patients reported completing the survey during the COVID-19 pandemic)
• Distance to treatment facility
• Treatment facility ID
• Region of treatment facility
• Mortality outcomes

Patients from around the United States were included

All sites were outpatient treatment facilities.1 Information about individual treatment site will not be released to protect patient and staff privacy.

Cities included in the study:

• Birmingham, Alabama
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago, Illinois
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Dallas, Texas
• Denver, Colorado
• Huntington, West Virginia
• Los Angeles, California
• New York, New York
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• San Francisco, California
• Seattle, Washington
• Washington, DC Metro Area

Data collection methods

The MOUD Study was a longitudinal, observational cohort study. The study sample included 1,974 adults with opioid use disorder (OUD) receiving various types of OUD treatment at 62 outpatient facilities over 18 months.

• Participants were followed from March 2018 through May 2021.
• The types of OUD treatment included MOUD (i.e., methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone), or counseling without MOUD.
• Patients in this study were asked to complete five web-based, self-administered questionnaires—baseline and follow up at 3-, 6-, 12-, and 18-months post-baseline.

The response rate was 100% at baseline, 72% at 3 months, 68% at 6 months, 52% at 12 months, and 53% at 18 months.1

Researchers might consider imputation methods to deal with missing data. Researchers can use treatment facility ID to address the correlation between observations within the same treatment facility.

How the data is interpreted

Please note, CDC staff are unable to provide analytic or technical assistance to researchers who use this publicly available data.

Published manuscripts using the MOUD Study Data:

1. Dever, Jill A., et al. "The Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Study: Methods and Initial Outcomes From an 18-Month Study of Patients in Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder." Public Health Reports (2023): 00333549231222479. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/00333549231222479
2. Villamil, Vanessa I., et al. "Barriers to retention in medications for opioid use disorder treatment in real-world practice." Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment (2024): 209310. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949875924000225
3. Nataraj, Nisha., et al. "Public Health Interventions and Overdose-Related Outcomes Among Persons With Opioid Use Disorder." JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(4):e244617. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.4617

Data reporting

There are no costs for accessing the publicly available MOUD Study data.

Download Data Files, Patient Questionnaires, and Codebooks:

The MOUD Study Codebook

• Contains a list of variables, their labels and distributions from baseline to 18 months post-baseline.

Patient questionnaires

• Contains questions the enrolled patients were asked from baseline to 18 months post-baseline.

Publicly available MOUD Study Data:

• Includes five datasets (CSV files) from baseline to 18 months post-baseline.
  • Patient Baseline Data
  • Patient 3-Month Data
  • Patient 6-Month Data
  • Patient 12-Month Data
  • Patient 18-Month Data

Data quality

Data limitations can be found in the MOUD Study publications listed below.

1. Dever, Jill A., et al. "The Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Study: Methods and Initial Outcomes From an 18-Month Study of Patients in Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder." Public Health Reports (2023): 00333549231222479. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/00333549231222479
2. Villamil, Vanessa I., et al. "Barriers to retention in medications for opioid use disorder treatment in real-world practice." Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment (2024): 209310. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949875924000225

Resources

More information on:

• Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)
• Find Help & Treatment
• Preventing Overdose
• Preventing Opioid Use Disorder
• Treating Opioid Use Disorder
• Linking People to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
• Addiction Medicine Toolkit