Effect Of Methadone On Chronic Illnesses And Behaviors Among People With Opioid Use Disorder (Oud) Receiving Methadone Maintenance Treatment (Mmt) At Pontian Primary Healthcare Clinics

The prolonged methadone treatment may affect the patient’s health status, such as developing chronic illness, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular events, co-morbidities, and affecting liver functions lead to decrease patient quality of life. Besides, the effectiveness of MMT is also based on the behavior of OUD to quit taking the illicit drug. This study aims to determine the effect of methadone towards chronic illness and behavior among OUD in primary healthcare precisely to assess the prevalence of chronic disease and co-morbidities, survival and mortality rate, and also the behavior among OUD on the acquisition of illicit drug. It is two-part of study that was conducted from September 2018 to September 2019; part one is a retrospective study to determine the prevalence, and mortality rate on OUD by retrieving data from the medical record and file patient record from 2007 until 2019. While part two is a prospective study to evaluate OUD behavior on the acquisition of illicit drugs during MMT by using a validated questionnaire. For part two, 164 people with OUD were recruited for interviewed through random sampling. Both data collected from parts one and two were entered into SPPS. In part one, a total of 380 OUDs enrolled MMT at Pontian district, minority were HIV positive (n=65, 17.1%) and unknown (n=6, 1.6%)