The Student Athlete Wellness Portal: Translating Student Athletes’ Prescription Opioid Use Narratives into a Targeted Public Health Intervention

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The opioid epidemic has permeated all strata of society over the last two decades, especially within the adolescent student athletic environment, a group particularly at risk and presenting their own challenges for science and practice. This paper (a) describes the development of a web-based intervention called the Student Athlete Wellness Portal that models effective opioid misuse resistance strategies and (b) details the findings of a single-group design to test its effectiveness. Materials and Methods: Formative research included 35 student athletes residing in the United States, ages 14 to 21, who had been injured in their school-based sport. They participated in in-depth qualitative interviews to explore narratives relating to their injuries and pain management plans. Inductive analyses of interview transcripts revealed themes of the challenges of being a student athlete, manageable vs. unmanageable pain, and ways to stay healthy. These themes were translated into prevention messages for the portal, which was then tested in a single-group design. Results: Users of the portal (n = 102) showed significant decreases in their willingness to misuse opioids and increases in their perceptions of opioid risks. Conclusions: This manuscript illuminates the processes involved in translating basic research knowledge into intervention scripts and reveals the promising effects of a technology-based wellness portal.