Attitude changes following short-form opioid overdose video education: a pilot study

Abstract

Background Opioid overdose response training (OORT) and the need for its rapid expansion have become more significant as the opioid epidemic continues to be a health crisis in the USA. Limitation of funding and stigmatization often hinders expansion of OORT programs. Primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been widespread transition from in-person to virtual communication. However, OORT programs may benefit from long-term use of this modality of education if it can be as effective. Objective To measure the change in participant attitude after a brief, virtual OORT. Methods A 6.5-min OORT video explained recognition of opioid overdose, appropriate response and proper administration of intranasal naloxone. Pre- and post-video scores from a 19-item survey were used to determine the video's impact on participants’ self-perceived competence and readiness to administer naloxone to a person with a suspected opioid overdose. Paired t tests were used in the analysis of pre- and post-video scores. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H testing were used to compare variance between several demographic subgroups of interest. Results A sample of 219 participants had a significant mean difference of 15.12 (SD 9.48; 95% CI 13.86–16.39, p < 0.001) between pre- and posttest scores. Improvements were found to be greatest in content-naïve participants with lower levels of education and non-health care-related jobs than participants endorsing previous content awareness, formal naloxone training, masters, doctorate or professional degrees and health care-related jobs. Conclusion This pilot study demonstrated encouraging evidence that a brief, virtual, pre-recorded educational intervention improved participant-rated competence and readiness to administer intranasal naloxone in a suspected opioid overdose. Due to scalability and ability to overcome common healthcare accessibility barriers, short-form videos focused on key facts about naloxone and the benefits of its use could be part of a strategy for rapid expansion of OORT programs to mitigate opioid overdose fatalities.

Virtual and remote opioid poisoning education and naloxone distribution programs: a scoping review

“…However, Huhn et al, 2018 reported that the median household income of participants was US$52,500, while Sisson 2023a reported that most participants had an annual household income between US$10,000 and US$49,000. Participants educational level was available in six (19%) studies, with three reporting most participants had a high school degree (23,27,55), two reporting most had a college degree (35,51), and two reporting most had a graduate degree or higher (32,39). The geographical area in which the participants resided was mentioned in six studies.…”

“…A frequent obstacle reported in 12 studies is small sample size, which ranged from six to 313 participants per group(25–27,30,31,36,37,42,45,48,51). Other limitations include the absence of longitudinal data(26,34,39,41,45,47,52), self-reported bias for questionnaires(23,24,46,49,50), the lack of comparison to an in-person intervention(35,38,41,44), no follow-up on the number of participants who responded to an opioid poisoning post-intervention(34,42,44,52), lack of validity of the tools used(25,30,32), low response rates, which were of 21.2% and 33.7%(32,50), and the lack of randomization(43,44).…”