Substance abuse treatment clinician opinions and infectious disease service delivery.

Substance abuse treatment programs are an important platform for delivery of services for infectious diseases (ID) associated with drug and alcohol use. However, important components of ID care are not universally provided. Clinician training often focuses on information about ID. Less attention is paid to provider opinions and attitudes that may be barriers to providing ID services. In a national multi-site trial conducted by the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), protocol CTN-0012, we investigated the relationship between clinician opinions and the delivery of services for human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, and sexually transmitted infections in substance abuse treatment settings. Survey data were collected from 1,723 clinicians at 269 CTN treatment programs. Clinician opinion was found to be significantly related to infectious disease service delivery. Implications for training are discussed.

Related protocols: CTN-0012