A comparison in the quality of care among legally coerced and voluntary clients in outpatient substance abuse treatment programs

Methods This study used data from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES). The NTIES was a prospective study of the impact of treatment programs on persons in publicly funded substance abuse treatment program. Subjects for this study were from outpatient non-methadone and non-correctional settings (N = 1,439) from 31 different treatment programs. Objective quality of care was measured by the presence of a treatment plan, whether subjects were in agreement with the treatment goals, and the proportion of service needs that were matched. Subjective quality was measured using an indicator of overall treatment satisfaction. The primary analytic strategy was multilevel linear and logistic modeling.