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Preliminary Evaluation of a Prescription Opioid Misuse Prevention Program Among Rural Middle School Students

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Abstract

Adolescent opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose have emerged as national health crises. Nearly 17% of high school students have misused prescription opioids. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reach and acceptability of a widely-used prescription opioid misuse prevention program, This Is (Not) About Drugs© (TINAD), and its preliminary efficacy at improving opioid misuse knowledge, opioid misuse attitudes, self-efficacy to avoid opioid misuse, and intentions to misuse opioids. Participants were 576 7th grade students (Mage = 11.8; 51% boys; 39% Hispanic, 31% White, 20% Black) from a rural county in the southeastern U.S. All participants received the TINAD program and completed pretest and immediate posttest assessments. The program was school-based and implemented in collaboration with school teachers and administrators. Over 91% of all eligible students in the school district participated in the TINAD program. Most participants found the program acceptable—over 83% of students liked the program. Approximately 9% of participants reported prior misuse of prescription opioids. After participating in TINAD, students self-reported higher knowledge and self-efficacy as well as safer attitudes. However, there was no change in intentions to misuse opioids in the future. Effects of the program were consistent across gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and previous opioid misuse. TINAD is acceptable and shows promise for improving opioid-related cognitions. However, more rigorous experimental and longitudinal research is needed to understand whether TINAD reduces opioid misuse over time. Given the limited research on adolescent opioid misuse prevention, this study lays the ground work for future randomized control trials.

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Data Availability

The data is available from the author upon request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), National Institutes of Health, through Grant Award Number UL1TR002489. The project also received support from the North Carolina State University College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Office of Research and Innovation, Department of Psychology, and Center for Family and Community Engagement. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, 640 Poe Hall, Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Reina Evans, Laura Widman, Hannah Javidi & Sarah L. Desmarais

  2. School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carroll Hall, CB 3365, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Elizabeth Troutman Adams

  3. Center for Family and Community Engagement, North Carolina State University, 2700 Katharine Stinson Dr., Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Sam Cacace & Sarah L. Desmarais

  4. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 240 Davie Hall, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Mitchell J. Prinstein

Authors
  1. Reina Evans
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Contributions

RE, MJP, LW, ETA, and SD contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by RE, LW, HJ, ETA, and SC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by RE and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Reina Evans.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the North Carolina State University Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Evans, R., Widman, L., Javidi, H. et al. Preliminary Evaluation of a Prescription Opioid Misuse Prevention Program Among Rural Middle School Students. J Community Health 45, 1139–1148 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00899-5

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