Clinic preferences and related factors among methadone maintenance therapy patients at a private health clinic in Vietnam in 2018

Abstract

A cross-sectional study using the take-all sampling method was conducted among 195 patients who were on methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) at a private health clinic in Vietnam in 2018 to describe the preferences, of treatment clinics decentralized services at the commune health centre (CHC) and related factors to their preferences. Information was collected using face-to-face interviews. Results showed that 40.5% of patients have moved from other clinics and 59.5% originally registered at the private MMT clinic. The most important reason that patients chose the private MMT facility was proximity to home/workplace/easyto-travel (96.2%). The main reason for patients desiring to receive MMT at CHC was closure-tohome (98.6%). The reasons for not choosing to receive MMT at CHC were afraid of knowing by family/friend (26.9%), not-good-enough quality (25.0%), fear of discrimination (23.1%). Factors related to desiring to receive MMT at CHC were distance to the clinic (OR, 2.9; 95%CI, 1.9 – 5.9), travel costs (OR, 1.2; 95%CI, 1.1 – 1.3) and treatment duration (OR, 1.2; 95%CI, 1.1 – 1.5). Scaling up the MMT site network with a decentralization model at the commune level is essential to have more references for patients.