Naloxone Knowledge, Carrying, Purchase, and Use

Importance

Widespread naloxone access is a key policy response to the opioid crisis. Naloxone availability is typically estimated from pharmacy sales, which exclude naloxone provided by community organizations, hospitals, and clinics, or sold over-the-counter.

Objective

To estimate naloxone knowledge, carrying, purchase, and use among US adults.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This survey study included noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 years and older from a national sample and a sample self-reporting opioid dependence. Respondents answered online questions between June 7 and June 29, 2024, about naloxone knowledge, carrying, purchase, and use.

Exposures

Opioid misuse, risk of overdose, risk of overdose by person known to respondent.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Naloxone knowledge, prevalence of naloxone carrying, purchase, and administration.

Results

The survey included 1515 individuals from a national sample (median [IQR] age, 45 [33-58] years; 770 women [50.8%]; 215 Black [14.2%], 1087 White [71.8%]) and 512 who self-reported opioid dependence. In the national sample, 50 respondents (3.3%) reported opioid dependence, yielding 562 respondents reporting opioid dependence (median [IQR] age, 41 [35-48] years; 404 female [70.2%]; 17 Black [3.0%], 494 White [87.9%]). Overall, 1164 respondents—700 (46.2%) in the national sample and 500 (89.0%) reporting opioid dependence—had heard of naloxone and correctly identified its purpose. One hundred sixty participants (10.6%) in the national sample and 340 participants (60.5%) in the sample reporting opioid dependence reported carrying naloxone. Among those reporting they were "very likely to overdose," 22 respondents (31.0%) in the national sample and 31 (73.8%) with opioid dependence reported carrying naloxone. Among those who know someone very likely to overdose, 43 participants (25.4%) in the national sample and 190 participants (70.1%) reporting opioid dependence reported carrying naloxone. Among those who ever carried naloxone, 108 (42.4%) in the national sample and 97 (22.6%) reporting opioid dependence had ever purchased naloxone. Overall, 128 respondents (8.4%) in the national sample and 267 respondents (47.5%) reporting opioid dependence reported administering naloxone to someone else while 93 (6.1%) in the national sample and 221 (39.3%) reporting opioid dependence reported being administered naloxone.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this survey study of naloxone, most respondents reporting opioid dependence correctly identified naloxone's purpose and carried it. Most naloxone carried was not purchased, suggesting a need for new ways, including rapid online surveys, to monitor naloxone possession.