University Research Sheds Light on Relapse Factors for Hazelden Betty Ford

A partnership with students at the University of Minnesota has resulted in a new way for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation to gain a better understanding the factors that put patients at greater risk for relapse.

A team of five master of business analytics students in the university’s Carlson School of Management Analytics Lab used artificial intelligence to identify data patterns in more than 250,000 Hazelden patient records. The review looked at factors such as patients’ age, gender, race, profession, as well as their frequency of visits to Hazelden Betty Ford, diagnoses received and the patients’ feelings about their treatment experience.

Gender, age, and types and number of substances used were each identified as factors associated with use and risk of relapse:

• Nearly 65% of patients were male
• Overall, patients who were 18 experienced the highest relapse rate, and females (especially those between the ages of 20 and 40) were less likely to return to using
• Nearly 45% of patients misused 2-3 substances
• Relapse rates were higher among all ages for individuals with alcohol use disorder, while relapse rates tended to go down among those using other substances as they grew older.

The students who worked on the project built a dashboard that Hazelden Betty Ford can use to review the data and continue adding more records in the future. Findings from the study will be the basis for a new Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation research piece to be published at a later date.