Asian American and Pacific Islander Substance Use Treatment Completion

• Published in: Psychological services 2019-11, Vol.16 (4), p.636-646
• Main Authors: Garrison, Yunkyoung Loh, Sahker, Ethan, Yeung, Chi W., Park, Soeun, Arndt, Stephan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent girls; Adolescents; Adult; Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander - statistics & numerical data; Asian Americans; Asians; Child; Clients; Clinical outcomes; Completion; Cultural competence; Demography; Drug use; Female; Guardians; Healthcare Disparities - ethnology; Hispanic or Latino - statistics & numerical data; Human; Humans; Latin American cultural groups; Latinos/Latinas; Male; Medical personnel; Medical treatment; Mental health professionals; Mental health services; Mental Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Outpatient; Outpatient treatment; Pacific Islander people; Pacific Islanders; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - ethnology; Psychological services; Racial and Ethnic Differences; Retrospective Studies; Sex offenders; Substance abuse; Substance abuse treatment; Substance Use Treatment; Substance-Related Disorders - ethnology; Substance-Related Disorders - therapy; Treatment Adherence and Compliance - ethnology; Treatment Adherence and Compliance - statistics & numerical data; Treatment Termination; White People; White People - ethnology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1541-1559; 1939-148X
• DOI: 10.1037/ser0000274

Mental health professionals and administrators work to improve substance use treatment for racially and ethnically diverse populations. However, a national comparison study of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and non-AAPIs substance use outpatient treatment completion has received little attention. The present study examined treatment completion by comparing AAPI clients to White and Latinx clients, and identified demographic and treatment-related moderating factors associated with treatment completion using discharge data from the Treatment Episode Data Sets-Discharge (TEDS-D). A retrospective analysis of AAPI treatment completion was conducted using logistic regression for the years 2006-2011 (N = 2,356,883). AAPIs were significantly more likely to complete treatment than non-AAPIs when controlling for all study variables in the multivariate model, Wald χ[1]2 = 158.60, p < .001, AOR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.15-1.21. Additionally, we found a moderating effect (Wald χ[2]2 = 69.65, p < .001) with large effect sizes in treatment completion differences between the three comparison groups (AAPI, White, and Latinx). Results demonstrated AAPI clients are more likely to complete treatment than White and Latinx clients with small effect sizes. Additionally, being female, an adolescent, in school, living with parents or adult guardians, having more frequent substance use, and being admitted to treatment at younger age in the AAPI samples were associated with higher treatment completion percentages with clinically meaningful effect sizes. These findings may help to enhance and expand culturally competent psychological services to AAPIs at risk for substance use problems.