AUTHOR=Huhn Andrew S. , Garcia-Romeu Albert Perez , Dunn Kelly E. 

TITLE=Opioid Overdose Education for Individuals Prescribed Opioids for Pain Management: Randomized Comparison of Two Computer-Based Interventions

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00034

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00034

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec id="ST1"><title>Background</title><p>Opioid overdose (OD) rates in the United States have reached unprecedented levels. Current OD prevention strategies largely consist of distribution of naloxone and in-person trainings, which face obstacles to expedient, widespread dissemination. Web-based interventions have increased opioid-OD response knowledge in patients with opioid-use disorders; however, these interventions have not been tested in the larger population of individuals that are prescribed opioid analgesics. This study assessed a web-based intervention providing education across three knowledge domains: opioid effects, opioid-OD symptoms, and opioid-OD response.</p></sec><sec id="ST2"><title>Methods</title><p>Participants (<italic>N</italic> = 197) were adults recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk from May to June 2017, who were prescribed an opioid medication for pain. Participants were randomly assigned to a Presentation (<italic>n</italic> = 97) intervention communicating relevant facts in each knowledge domain, or a Presentation + Mastery (<italic>n</italic> = 100) intervention including the same facts but requiring that participants respond correctly to ≥80% of embedded questions in each module before advancing. Participants completed the Brief Opioid Overdose Knowledge (BOOK) measure before and after the interventions, and provided feedback on acceptability.</p></sec><sec id="ST3"><title>Results</title><p>Both versions of the intervention resulted in significant pre to postintervention increases in BOOK scores across all knowledge domains (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), with no significant knowledge differences between groups. The Presentation intervention took significantly less time to complete (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and was completed by significantly more participants than the Presentation + Mastery intervention (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Most participants rated both interventions as highly acceptable.</p></sec><sec id="ST4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>Results replicate a previous study (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B1">1</xref>) and suggest the web-based Presentation intervention may be a convenient, cost-effective method for disseminating crucial public health information for preventing opioid OD.</p></sec>