Survival Analysis of Drug Abuse Relapse in Addiction Treatment Centers.
BACKGROUND
Drug abuse is a chronic and enduring phenomenon, which is among the important challenging public health problems. One of the main aspects in drug abuse is the relapse.


OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to estimate the time to relapse (survival rate) and to evaluate some of its associated variables by survival analysis.


METHODS
This research was conducted in four addiction treatment centers on 140 self-referred addicts in Ilam city, Iran, in 2012. Cluster sampling method was used for selecting the samples and data were collected by interview and referring to the subjects' records. The gathered data were analyzed through the life table, Kaplan-Meier analysis, log rank test, and Cox regression.


RESULTS
The relapse rate was 30.42%, mean and median of the time to relapse (survival time) were 27.40 ± 1.63 months (CI 95%: 24.19 - 30.60) and 25 ± 2.25 months (CI 95%: 22.5 - 27.5), respectively. In the first six months, the cumulative survival rate was 83%, while in the 24th month it was 46% and the following time was consistent. Job status (OR = 2.64), marital status (OR = 1.55), family size (OR = 1.20) and age (OR = 0.23) were statistically significant in Cox regression model.


CONCLUSIONS
In the initial treatment, it seems necessary to supervise and monitor the treatment process through staff in addiction treatment centers together with the company of the addicts' families to reduce relapse rate.
Research Center for Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran.
Aziz
A
Kassani
Faculty of Humanities, University of Kashan, Kashan, IR Iran ; Research Center for Prevention of Socio-Psychological Injuries, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, IR Iran.
Mohsen
M
Niazi
Research Center for Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran.
Jafar
J
Hassanzadeh
Faculty of Humanities, University of Kashan, Kashan, IR Iran ; Research Center for Prevention of Socio-Psychological Injuries, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, IR Iran.
Rostam
R
Menati
Addictive; Behaviors; Drug Abuse; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers