Encouraging disposal of unused opioid analgesics in Appalachia

Developing a health communication campaign for disposal of unused opioid medications

“…Development of the community-based campaign messages followed a two-step approach involving focus group interviews with community members of the five counties. First, we conducted focus groups to identify themes to incorporate into the health messages and analyzed the data using an inductive, thematic qualitative approach ( Helme, Egan, Lukacena, Roberson, Zelaya, McLeary, & Wolfson, 2020 ) informed by the Health Belief Model ( Hochbaum et al, 1952 , Strecher and Rosenstock, 1997 ). Based on the findings, we carefully designed eight messages that incorporated perceived benefits of proper disposal , self-efficacy surrounding disposal , and cues to action for proper disposal of prescription medications.…”

“…A general lack of awareness of dropboxes is one important reason for low rates of utilization ( Egan et al, 2019 , Helme et al, 2020 ). While many efforts to promote disposal exist, to our knowledge, there is only one peer-reviewed evaluation of a community-based disposal campaign in the literature, which assessed the impact of statewide implementation of the American Medicine Chest Challenge (AMCC) in New Jersey ( Yanovitzky, 2016 ).…”

“…To inform the development of a theory-based campaign to influence disposal of unused opioid medications, our research team conducted focus groups (n = 10 focus groups and 94 participants) with community members in five rural, Appalachian counties (three in Kentucky and two in North Carolina) that have been heavily affected by the opioid crisis ( Helme, Egan, Lukacena, Roberson, Zelaya, McLeary, & Wolfson, 2020 ). The Health Belief Model (HBM) ( Hochbaum et al, 1952 , Strecher and Rosenstock, 1997 ) was the guiding theoretical framework used to gain a better understanding of community members’ attitudes and beliefs concerning disposal of unused opioid medications.…”

“…Focus group participants perceived that their communities were susceptible to serious harms associated with opioid misuse and recognized benefits of disposing of unused prescription opioids, including preventing accidental ingestion or misuse among household members and protecting the home from burglary. Barriers to disposal included lack of awareness and perceived inconvenience of using dropboxes, the location of some dropboxes near or in law enforcement agency offices, and a desire to retain unused medications “just in case” they would be needed to treat future ailments ( Helme, Egan, Lukacena, Roberson, Zelaya, McLeary, & Wolfson, 2020 )…”

“…The research reported in this paper built on these findings ( Helme, Egan, Lukacena, Roberson, Zelaya, McLeary, & Wolfson, 2020 ) to (1) develop community-based campaign messages promoting appropriate disposal of unused opioids, and (2) identify which of the messages would be the most promising to encourage disposal of unused opioid by individuals in communities.…”