National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway.
Int J Drug Policy. 2021 Sep;95:103253. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103253. Epub 2021 Apr 11.
Take-home naloxone (THN) provision to people who use drugs, their family/friends, and non-medical personnel is considered a public health strategy to improve community-based naloxone access and reduce the time to antidote treatment for opioid overdose in order to prevent fatal outcome. THN programs typically report up to three performance indicators: the volume of THN kits distributed, the rate of requests for re-supply of THN kits (e.g., following naloxone use for overdose reversal), and - increasingly - THN "carriage". In this Research Methods piece, we discuss the current shortcomings in the latter measurement of THN carriage from a mixed-methods perspective and describe possible implications for public health related research and improved data analyses. We present an argument for the need to improve research methods in the case of THN "carriage" and propose a multidimensional measurement structure that takes into account: 1) the location of the THN kit relative to its owner, 2) the owner's immediate access to the kit in an emergency, 3) the type of THN device, and 4) the purpose of THN ownership (i.e., for use in self or known/unknown other/s).
向吸毒者、其家人/朋友和非医务人员提供可携带的纳洛酮（THN）被认为是改善社区纳洛酮获取途径和减少阿片类药物过量解毒剂治疗时间的公共卫生策略，以预防致命后果。THN 计划通常报告多达三个绩效指标：THN 试剂盒的分发量、THN 试剂盒再供应请求的比率（例如，在使用纳洛酮逆转过量后），以及——越来越多地——THN“携带”。在本研究方法部分，我们从混合方法的角度讨论了后者测量 THN 携带的当前缺陷，并描述了对与公共卫生相关的研究和改进数据分析的可能影响。我们提出了在 THN“携带”情况下改进研究方法的必要性，并提出了一个多维测量结构，该结构考虑到：1）THN 试剂盒相对于其所有者的位置，2）所有者在紧急情况下对试剂盒的即时访问，3）THN 设备的类型，以及 4）THN 所有权的目的（即，用于自我或已知/未知他人）。
