December 11, 2008

TEDS Report Definitions

This report provides definitions for terms used in The TEDS Report, which presents findings from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS). These definitions will also be available on the OAS website. In the future, The TEDS Report will refer readers to this definition report for information on the variables used in the analyses.

TEDS is an annual compilation of data on the demographic characteristics and substance abuse problems of those admitted to substance abuse treatment, primarily at facilities that receive some public funding.¹ TEDS records represent admissions rather than individuals, as a person may be admitted to substance abuse treatment more than once during a single year.

TEDS consists of three data sets: a core set of data elements on admissions known as the Minimum Data Set that is collected by all States, a Supplemental Data Set of data elements on admissions collected by some States (the level of reporting varies by data item), and a Discharge Data Set for which 34 States reported complete data in 2005.^2,3 By convention, TEDS analyses of Supplemental Data Set items are restricted to States with response rates of 75 percent or higher for that supplemental item.

In the following material, Supplemental Data Set and Discharge Data Set items are identified with “(S)” or “(D)” designations, respectively; all other definitions are for Minimum Data Set items.

• Primary Substance of Abuse - The main substance of abuse reported at the time of admission. TEDS collects data about the following substances: alcohol; cocaine; hallucinogens; inhalants; marijuana/hashish; opiates including heroin, non-prescription methadone, and other opiates and synthetics; over-the-counter (OTC) medications; phenylcyclidine (PCP); sedatives including barbiturates and other non-barbiturate sedatives; stimulants including methamphetamine, other amphetamines, and other stimulants; and tranquilizers including benzodiazepines and other non-benzodiazepine tranquilizers.
  
  
• Secondary or Tertiary Substances - TEDS allows for the recording of two other substances of abuse (in addition to the primary substance). A client may be abusing more than 3 substances at the time of admission, but only 3 are recorded in TEDS.
  
  
• Age of First Use - (Recorded for each reported substance of abuse.) For substances other than alcohol, this identifies the age at which the client first used the drug. For alcohol, age of first use records the age of first intoxication.
  
  
• Duration of Use - (Computed for each reported substance of abuse.) Computed as the time from the age of first use to the date of admission.
  
  
• Frequency of Use - (Recorded for each reported substance of abuse.) Identifies the frequency of use of the substance. Categories include: no use in the past month, 1-3 times in the past month, 1-2 times in the past week, 3-6 times in the past week, and daily.
  
  
• Usual Route of Administration - (Recorded for each reported substance of abuse.) Identifies the usual route of administration of the substance. Categories include: oral, smoking, inhalation, injection (intravenous or intramuscular), or other. (Crack cocaine is defined as smoked cocaine.)
  

• Type of Service at Admission - Categories include eight service types grouped in three service settings:
  
  
• Detoxification - Includes two service types: 24-hour service hospital inpatient, and 24-hour service free-standing residential.
  
  
• Rehabilitation/residential - Includes three service types: hospital (other than detoxification), short-term (30 days or fewer), and long-term (more than 30 days).
  
  
• Ambulatory - Includes three service types: intensive outpatient, non-intensive outpatient, and ambulatory detoxification.
  
  
• Opioid Replacement Therapy - Identifies whether or not the use of methadone or buprenorphine is part of the client’s treatment plan for opioid addiction.
  

• Principal Source of Referral - Describes the person or agency referring the client to the alcohol or drug abuse treatment program. These include:
  
  
• Individual (includes self-referral) - Includes the client, a family member, friend, or any other individual not included in the other categories.
  
  
• Alcohol/drug abuse care providers - Any program, clinic, or other health care provider whose principal objective is treating clients with substance abuse problems, or a program whose activities are related to alcohol or other drug abuse prevention, education, or treatment.
  
  
• Other health care provider - A physician, psychiatrist, or other licensed health care professional; or general hospital, psychiatric hospital, mental health program, or nursing home.
  
  
• School (educational) - A school principal, counselor, or teacher; or a student assistance program (SAP), the school system, or an educational agency.
  
  
• Employer/EAP - A supervisor or an employee counselor.
  
  
• Other community referral - A community or religious organization, or any Federal, State, or local agency that provides aid in the areas of poverty relief, unemployment, shelter, or social welfare. Self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Al-Anon, and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are also included in this category. Defense attorneys are included in this category.
  
  
• Court/criminal justice/DUI/DWI - Any police official, judge, prosecutor, probation officer or other person affiliated with a Federal, State, or County judicial system. The Supplemental Data Set item “Detailed Criminal Justice Referral” (see below) indicates the specific type of referral for admissions with this response.
  
  
• Detailed Criminal Justice Referral (S) - Indicates the specific type of referral for court/criminal justice/DUI/DWI referrals (see above). Categories include the following: State/Federal court, formal adjudication process other than State/Federal court, probation/parole, other recognized legal entity (e.g., local law enforcement agency, corrections agency, youth services, or review board/agency), diversionary program (e.g., TASC), prison, DUI/DWI, and other.
  

• Number of Prior Treatment Episodes - The number of previous treatment episodes the client has received in any drug or alcohol treatment program. Changes in service within the same episode (transfers) are not counted as separate prior episodes.
  
• First-time admissions - Admissions with no prior treatment episodes.
  
  
• Repeat admissions - Admissions with one or more prior treatment episodes. Recorded categories include 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 or more prior admissions.

• Age - The client’s age at the time of admission.
  
  
• Adolescents - Defined as admissions aged 12 to 17, inclusive.
  
  
• Underage alcohol admissions - Alcohol treatment admissions younger than 21 years old.
  
  
• Education - Specifies the number of years of school the client has completed. Education data are calculated only for admissions aged 18 or older.
  
  
• Employment Status - Identifies the client’s employment status at the time of admission. Employment data are calculated only for admissions aged 16 and older. Categories include:
  
  
• Full time - Working 35 hours or more each week, includes members of the uniformed services.
  
  
• Part time - Working fewer than 35 hours each week.
  
  
• Unemployed - Looking for work during the past 30 days or on layoff from a job.
  
  
• Not in labor force - Not looking for work during the past 30 days or a homemaker, student, disabled, retired, or an inmate of an institution. The Supplemental Data Set item “Detailed Not in Labor Force” (see below) indicates which the client is.
  
  
• Detailed “Not in Labor Force” (S) - Provides more detailed information about those clients who are coded as “Not in labor force” in the TEDS Minimum Data Set item “Employment Status” (see above). It specifies if the “Not in labor force” client is a homemaker, student, retired person, disabled person, an inmate of an institution, or other (not looking for work in the past 30 days). (Institution means a prison or institution that restrains a person, otherwise able, from entering the labor force.)
  
  
• Expected/Actual Primary Source of Payment (S) - Identifies the expected primary source of payment for a treatment episode at the time of admission. Sources of payment include the following: self-pay, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, other government payments, worker’s compensation, other health insurance companies, no charge (free, charity, special research, or teaching), and other.
  
  
• Health Insurance (S) - Specifies the client’s health insurance (if any). The insurance may or may not cover alcohol or drug treatment. TEDS categories include private insurance (other than Blue Cross/Blue Shield or an HMO), Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, health maintenance organization (HMO), other (e.g., TRICARE, CHAMPUS), and none.
  
  
• Living arrangement (S) - Specifies whether the client is homeless, living with parents, in a supervised setting, or living on his or her own. Categories include:
  
  
• Homeless - Clients with no fixed address, including shelters.
  
  
• Dependent living - Clients living in a supervised setting, such as a residential institution, halfway house, or group home, and children (younger than age 18) living with parents, relatives, or guardians, or in foster care.
  
  
• Independent living - Clients living alone or with others without supervision.
  
  
• Marital Status (S) - Categories include the following: never married, now married, separated, divorced, and widowed. (A common analytic category combines divorced, separated, and widowed as “formerly married.”)
  
  
• Pregnancy Status (S) - Specifies whether or not a client is pregnant at the time of admission.
  
  
• Primary Source of Income/Support (S) - Identifies the client’s principal source of financial support. For admissions younger than 18, this field indicates the parents’ primary source of income/support. Categories include the following: wages/salary, public assistance, retirement/pension, disability, other, and none.
  
  
• Psychiatric Problem in Addition to Alcohol or Drug Problem (S) - Identifies whether or not the client has a psychiatric problem in addition to his or her alcohol or drug use problem. (Also referred to as “Co-occurring disorders.”)
  
  
• Race - Specifies the client’s race. TEDS categories include Alaska Native, American Indian (other than Alaska Native), Asian or Pacific Islander, Black or African American, White, other single race, and two or more races.
  
  
• Ethnicity - Identifies the client’s specific Hispanic origin, if any. The categories, which disregard race, include Puerto Rican; Mexican; Cuban; other specific Hispanic—of Central American, South American, or any other Spanish cultural origin (including Spain), other than Puerto Rican, Mexican, or Cuban; Hispanic origin unspecified—of Hispanic origin, but specific origin not known or not specified; and not of Hispanic origin.
  
  
• Race/Ethnicity - (Computed from race and ethnicity.) Admissions with non-Hispanic ethnicity and Black, White, Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian, or Alaska Native race are classified by the race response. Admissions with Hispanic ethnicity and Black, White, other single race, or unknown race are classified by the Hispanic ethnicity response. Admissions with Hispanic ethnicity and Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian, or Alaska Native race; admissions with non-Hispanic ethnicity and unknown race; and admissions with two or more races are classified as “other” race/ethnicity.
  
  
• Sex - Identifies the client’s gender as male or female.
  
  
• Veteran Status (S) - Identifies whether or not the client has served in the uniformed services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Coast and Geodetic Survey, etc.).
  

• Census Regions and Divisions - The U.S. Census Bureau divides the country into four census regions—Northeast (9 States), Midwest (12 States), West (13 States), and South (17 States). The States in these regions are further subdivided into divisions, for a total of nine:
  

• Northeast
  
  New England
  (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, and VT)
  
  Middle Atlantic
  (NJ, NY, and PA)
  
  
• Midwest
  
  East North Central
  (IL, IN, MI, OH, and WI)
  
  West North Central
  (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, and SD)
  
  
• West
  
  Mountain
  (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, and WY)
  
  Pacific
  (AK, CA, HI, OR, and WA)
  
  
• South
  
  South Atlantic
  (DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, and WV)
  
  East South Central
  (AL, KY, MS, and TN)
  
  West South Central
  (AR, LA, OK, and TX)
  

• Type of Service at Discharge (D) - The types of service at discharge are based on the types of service at admission, but six of the discharge categories exclude records where opioid replacement therapy was planned as part of treatment: (1) ambulatory, non-intensive outpatient; (2) ambulatory, intensive outpatient; (3) rehabilitation/residential, short-term (30 days or fewer); (4) rehabilitation/residential, long-term (more than 30 days); (5) rehabilitation/residential, hospital; and (6) detoxification (all detoxification clients, regardless of service setting, except for those reporting opioid replacement therapy). Records reporting planned use of opioid replacement therapy occurred mainly in two service types, and these are reported separately: (7) outpatient opioid replacement therapy, and (8) opioid replacement detoxification.
  
  
• Date of Last Contact (D) - Specifies when the client was last seen for a treatment.
  
  
• Date of Discharge (D) - Specifies when the client was formally discharged from the treatment facility or service.
  
  
• Length of Stay (D) - The time elapsed between date of admission and date of last contact (or date of discharge if date of last contact is not reported). This variable is computed after data are submitted to TEDS.
  
  
• Reason for Discharge (D) - Indicates the outcome of treatment or the reason for transfer or discontinuance of treatment. Categories include the following: treatment completed, left against professional advice (dropped out), terminated by facility, transferred to another substance abuse program or facility, transferred to another substance abuse program or facility but did not report, incarcerated, death, other (client moved, or illness, hospitalization, or other reasons somewhat out of client’s control), and unknown.
  

¹ In 2006, TEDS collected data on 1.8 million admissions to substance abuse treatment facilities. Four States and jurisdictions (AK, DC, GA, and VT) did not submit data for 2006.
² Many definitions in this report are from Appendix B of the following report: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. (2008). Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS): 1996-2006. National admissions to substance abuse treatment services (DASIS Series: S-43, DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 08-4347). Rockville, MD: Author.
³ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies (2008). Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS): 2005. Discharges from substance abuse treatment services (DASIS Series: S-41, DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 08-4314). Rockville, MD: Author.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. (December 11, 2008). The TEDS Report - -  TEDS Report Definitions. Rockville, MD.

This page was last updated on January 08, 2009.