1053. The Ecological Relationship Between County-Level HCV Case Rates and Office-Based Buprenorphine in Ohio

BACKGROUND: The United States is experiencing an epidemic of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections due to injection drug use, especially in rural areas. Counties may be expanding access to buprenorphine, an evidence-based treatment that has been shown to reduce injection drug use, to control the HCV epidemic. We assessed the county-level relationship between HCV rates in 2013-2015 and office-based buprenorphine prescribing in 2018 in Ohio. We also assessed if this relationship varied between rural and urban counties. METHODS: We fit crude and adjusted negative binomial models to assess the relationship between HCV incidence rates in 2013-2015 and office-based buprenorphine prescribing capacity and frequency in Ohio in 2018. We examined effect measure modification of this relationship by rural-urban status using an interaction term. RESULTS: We found that a 1% higher acute HCV rate was associated with an 18% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: -3%, 44%) higher office-based buprenorphine prescribing capacity and an 22% (95% CI: -4%, 55%) higher office-based buprenorphine prescribing frequency. We found that a 1% higher total HCV rate was associated with a 239% (95% CI: 179%, 317%) higher office-based buprenorphine prescribing capacity and a 273% (95% CI: 183%, 405%) higher office-based buprenorphine prescribing frequency. We found no evidence of effect measure modification by rural-urban status. CONCLUSION: Counties across Ohio may have expanded access to office-based buprenorphine in response to high rates of total HCV. Expansion of office-based buprenorphine may be less associated with acute HCV rates due to the low frequency with which these cases are seen in outpatient settings. DISCLOSURES: All Authors: No reported disclosures