Development and Pretesting of Prescription Opioid Misuse Prevention Messages: Results and Implications for Practice

ABSTRACT

Well-designed health communication campaigns can contribute to the uptake of preventive behaviors, but there has been a lack of attention on using communication research to develop opioid misuse prevention messages. We report the results of two studies designed to inform the development of prescription opioid misuse prevention messages for adults ages 30–59. In Study 1, 16 adults across 4 counties participated in semi-structured interviews to provide input on message concepts addressing six key prescription opioid misuse prevention behaviors. In Study 2, 1,335 adults completed an online, survey-based between-subjects experiment in which participants were randomized to a no message control condition or a message condition that aligned with a prevention behavior. The survey examined Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) predictors of intention in no message control participants and examined differences in intention to perform prevention behaviors among experimental conditions. The qualitative interviews yielded insights about message preferences and perceived facilitators and barriers related to the prevention behaviors. The online survey demonstrated that attitude and descriptive norms are important determinants of preventive behaviors and potential targets for communication interventions. Message testing results demonstrated that the draft messages were effective in changing intentions to safely store, securely dispose of, and monitor the use of prescription opioids, but they were not effective in increasing intentions to talk to healthcare providers, older adults, or children about proper opioid use. A communication campaign addressing attitudes and perceived descriptive norms may be successful in increasing intentions to engage in opioid misuse prevention behaviors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2124059.

Notes

1. This age range, known as the “sandwich” generation due to their likelihood of being caregivers to both their children and their older parents (Do et al., 2014), was chosen for this campaign because of their ability to influence the prevention behaviors of multiple groups.

2. The marketing agency provided two different versions of messages designed to increase secure storage of prescription opioids, so we decided to include both in order to compare effectiveness (these two differed in that one included a photograph and the other used large text to convey the key message).

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the FY2017 and FY2020 Rural Health and Safety Education Competitive Grants Program of National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Grants #2017-46100-27225 and #2020-46100-32841, and the FY2018 and FY2020 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Rural Opioids Technical Assistance Grants #6H79TI081894-02M001 and #1H79TI083275-01.