Quality of life in older adults with opioid use disorder: A scoping review

•Substance use and opioid use disorders negatively impacts QOL older adults.•There are a paucity of evidence-based interventions for improving QOL in older adults with opioid use disorder.•Further intervention would be to replicate studies using medication-assisted therapy, include psychological interventions, and alternative therapies studies in QOL for older adults with opioid use disorder. The increasing prevalence of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD) is part of a national health crisis and reflects an unfortunate trend among populations of older adults. Opioid Use Disorder and opioid-related mortalities are also rising among older adults following this trend. Compared to younger populations, the effect of SUD and OUD on quality of life (QOL) in older adults is complex and poorly understood. This scoping review explores how QOL has been evaluated in high-risk subpopulations of older adults with SUD, specifically OUD. The articles reviewed for this paper targeted studies measuring QOL in older adults with OUD. We uncovered a paucity of literature devoted to studying interventions to improve QOL in older adults with OUD. This review supports further research on clinical interventions targeting improving QOL for older adults with OUD.