The Life-Saving Drug That No One Knows About: Naloxone Education and the Health Belief Model

Naloxone hydrochloride, popularly known by the brand name Narcan, is an emergency treatment used to reverse an overdose on opioid drugs. The CDC reports upwards of 26,000 individuals saved by naloxone between 1996 and 2014 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Despite this success rate, those outside of the medical field largely remain unaware of what naloxone is or how they can use it in an emergency, leading to needless loss of life. Many studies focusing on naloxone access and education have been unable to offer findings meant to increase the use and ownership of the drug by lay individuals. To help redress this, the current study aims to dissect the potential motivations and deterrents to accessing and acquiring naloxone using the Health Belief Model as a guide. Participants were asked to complete a survey investigating their previous exposure to, general attitudes about, and intent to access and further educate themselves about naloxone. The current study seeks to utilize the motivational framework of the Health Belief Model to better understand the important issue of access to anti-opioid drugs. Relevant findings are intended to aid in the pursuit of an efficient and successful application in the public health domain to increase naloxone possession and decrease deaths caused by opioid drugs