Correlates of substance abuse treatment completion among disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, South Africa

BACKGROUND Completion of substance abuse treatment is a proximal indicator of positive treatment outcomes. To design interventions to improve outcomes, it is therefore important to unpack the factors contributing to treatment completion. To date, substance abuse research has not examined the factors associated with treatment completion among poor, disadvantaged communities in developing countries. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring client-level factors associated with treatment completion among poor communities in South Africa. METHODS Secondary data analysis was conducted on cross-sectional survey data collected from 434 persons residing in poor communities in Cape Town, South Africa who had accessed substance abuse treatment in 2006. RESULTS Multiple regression analyses revealed that therapeutic alliance, treatment perceptions, abstinence-specific social support, and depression were significant partial predictors of treatment completion. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that treatment completion rates of individuals from poor South African communities can be enhanced by i) improving perceptions of substance abuse treatment through introducing quality improvement initiatives into substance abuse services, ii) strengthening clients' abstinence-oriented social networks and, iii) strengthening the counselor-client therapeutic alliance.