BACKGROUND: This article reports on the first implementation of an online opioid-overdose prevention, recognition and response training for laypeople. The training was disseminated nationally in November 2014. Between 2000 and 2014, U.S. opioid deaths increased by 200%. The importance of complementary approaches to reduce opioid overdose deaths, such as online training, cannot be overstated.
OBJECTIVES: A retrospective evaluation was conducted to assess perceived knowledge, skills to intervene in an overdose, confidence to intervene, and satisfaction with the training.
MEASUREMENTS: Descriptive statistics were used to report sample characteristics, compare experiences with overdose and/or naloxone between subgroups, and describe participants’ satisfaction with the trainings. Z-ratios were used to compare independent proportions, and paired t-tests were used to compare participant responses to items pre- and posttraining, including perceived confidence to intervene and perceived knowledge and skills to intervene successfully.
RESULTS: Between January and October 2015, 2,450 laypeople took the online training; 1,464 (59.8%) agreed to be contacted. Of these, 311 (21.2% of those contacted) completed the survey. Over 80% reported high satisfaction with content, format and mode of delivery and high satisfaction with items related to confidence and overdose reversal preparedness. Notably, 89.0% of participants felt they had the knowledge and skills to intervene successfully posttraining compared to 20.3% pretraining (z = -17.2, p <.001). Similarly, posttraining, 87.8% of participants felt confident they could successfully intervene compared to 24.4% pretraining (z = -15.9, p <.001).
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the GetNaloxoneNow.org online training for laypeople.
Implementation of online opioid prevention, recognition and response trainings for laypeople: Year 1 survey results
Substance Use and Misuse, 53 (12), 1997-2002. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2018.1451891. PMCID: PMC6240473.