Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb 25;11(2):e33451.
doi: 10.2196/33451.

Evaluation of an Experimental Web-based Educational Module on Opioid-related Occupational Safety Among Police Officers: Protocol for a Randomized Pragmatic Trial to Minimize Barriers to Overdose Response

Janie Simmons #  1 , Luther Elliott #  1 , Alex S Bennett  1 , Leo Beletsky  2 , Sonali Rajan  3 , Brad Anders  4 , Nicole Dastparvardeh  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of an Experimental Web-based Educational Module on Opioid-related Occupational Safety Among Police Officers: Protocol for a Randomized Pragmatic Trial to Minimize Barriers to Overdose Response

Janie Simmons et al. JMIR Res Protoc. .

Abstract

Background: As drug-related morbidity and mortality continue to surge, police officers are on the front lines of the North American overdose (OD) crisis. Drug law enforcement shapes health risks among people who use drugs (PWUD), while also impacting the occupational health and wellness of officers. Effective interventions to align law enforcement practices with public health and occupational safety goals remain underresearched.

Objective: The Opioids and Police Safety Study (OPS) aims to shift police practices relating to PWUD. It adapts and evaluates the relative effectiveness of a curriculum that bundles content on public health promotion with occupational risk reduction (ORR) to supplement a web-based OD response and naloxone training platform (GetNaloxoneNow.org, or GNN). This novel approach has the potential to improve public health and occupational safety practices, including using naloxone to reverse ODs, referring PWUD to treatment and other supportive services, and avoiding syringe confiscation.

Methods: This longitudinal study uses a randomized pragmatic trial design. A sample of 300 active-duty police officers from select counties in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire with high OD fatality rates will be randomized (n=150 each) to either the experimental arm (GNN + OPS) or the control arm (GNN + COVID-19 ORR). A pre- and posttraining survey will be administered to all 300 officers, after which they will be administered quarterly surveys for 12 months. A subsample of police officers will also be qualitatively followed in a simultaneous embedded mixed-methods approach. Research ethics approval was obtained from the New York University Institutional Review Board.

Results: Results will provide an understanding of the experiences, knowledge, and perceptions of this sample of law enforcement personnel. Generalized linear models will be used to analyze differences in key behavioral outcomes between the participants in each of the 2 study arms and across multiple time points (anticipated minimum effect size to be detected, d=0.50). Findings will be disseminated widely, and the training products will be available nationally once the study is completed.

Conclusions: The OPS is the first study to longitudinally assess the impact of a web-based opioid-related ORR intervention for law enforcement in the U.S. Our randomized pragmatic clinical trial aims to remove barriers to life-saving police engagement with PWUD/people who inject drugs by focusing both on the safety of law enforcement and evidence-based and best practices for working with persons at risk of an opioid OD. Our simultaneous embedded mixed-methods approach will provide empirical evaluation of the diffusion of the naloxone-based response among law enforcement.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrail.gov NCT05008523; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05008523.

International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/33451.

Keywords: law enforcement; naloxone; occupational health; occupational risk; online education; opioid overdose prevention and response training; opioids; police/education.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The Opioids and Police Safety Study (OPS) training, along with the COVID-19 training, will be disseminated free of charge once the study is complete. There will also be no charge for certificates of completion. New York University (NYU) will own the copyright for the OPS and COVID-19 training programs. The training programs will be housed at GetNaloxoneNow.org (GNN), an entity developed and owned by the first author and principal investigator (PI), JS. Currently, JS houses the first responder training, along with a training for laypeople—the bystander training—on GetNaloxoneNow.org for free as well. A US $10 donation is requested in exchange for a certificate of completion in order to defray costs for keeping the training modules up to date. Theoretically, the study could lead to additional GNN users, which could, potentially, increase the financial value of these computer-based training programs. The study could also benefit due to the potential for enhanced licensure to other users, although licensure to other users never has been initiated nor is planned. JS is the founder and owner of GetNaloxoneNow.org, where the training modules are housed and where they will become available (at no cost) at the conclusion of the study.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overarching conceptual model. NSI: needle stick injury; OD: overdose; OEND: overdose education and naloxone distribution; PWUO: people who use opioids.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Statistically significant differences in proportions of participants achieving study endpoints between intervention and control arms.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interrelationship of study aims. GNN: GetNaloxoneNow.org; OD: overdose; OEND: overdose education and naloxone distribution; ORR: occupational risk reduction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Press Release: Overdose Deaths Accelerating During COVID-19. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2020. [2021-12-01]. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.h...
    1. Friedman J, Beletsky L, Schriger DL. Overdose-related cardiac arrests observed by emergency medical services during the US COVID-19 epidemic. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 May 01;78(5):562–564. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.4218. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/33270086 2773768 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vital Statistics Rapid Release: Provision Drug Overdose Death Counts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2021. [2021-12-01]. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm .
    1. Drug Overdoses Killed A Record Number Of Americans in 2020, Jumping by Nearly 30% National Public Radio (WNYC) 2021. [2021-12-01]. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1016029270/drug-overdoses-killed-a-record... .
    1. Volpe DA, McMahon Tobin GA, Mellon RD, Katki AG, Parker RJ, Colatsky T, Kropp TJ, Verbois SL. Uniform assessment and ranking of opioid μ receptor binding constants for selected opioid drugs. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2011 Apr;59(3):385–90. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2010.12.007.S0273-2300(11)00003-1 - DOI - PubMed

Associated data