Quality of life and associated factors in methadone patients in Long An province, 2019

Abstract

* Background: Currently, methadone treatment shows their positive impacts in increasing quality of life (QOL) of addicted patients. Understanding the status of QOL of intravenous drug users who were managed at Methadone facilities can contribute for proposing appropriate solutions for the methadone treatment program.

* Methodology: All 373 patients who were under methadone treatment in Long An province were selected as the study participants. The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) - BREF was used to assess the QOL of the patients.

* Results: The mean of patients' QOL (on a 100-point scale) was 66.1 ± 6.6,  the highest score was recorded in the environmental domain (70.9 ± 11.5) and the lowest score was the social domain (61.1 ± 13.5). Patients with stable jobs and high incomes tended to have higher QOL score. The support of patients’ relatives, especially their spouses contributed to the increased patients’ QOL score (p <0.05).

* Conclusion: Patients’ QOL was good. In order to improve patients’ quality of life, health facilities need to promote counseling activities to raise patient awareness about treatment adherence and encourage patients to own health insurance.