Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Harm reduction is both a treatment philosophy and set of interventions designed to reduce negative consequences of substance use for people who are unwilling or unable to stop use.Harm reduction is most often targeted for injection drug users as they are at high risk for negative outcomes such as HIV, liver disease and overdose.Despite the success of some harm reduction interventions (e.g.needle exchange programs) in reducing overdose deaths and the number of HIV transmissions, such interventions are often controversial and not well accepted in the United States by treatment professionals.Young adults in college may also benefit from harm reduction's practical and useful interventions as substance use and related negative consequences are common in this population.However, no one has assessed the acceptability of harm reduction for college students who are recreational substance users.The current study recruited 104 students from a public Midwestern university to assess their acceptance of and their perceived advantages/disadvantages of six harm reduction and two abstinence-focused interventions designed for recreational substance users.Results indicate that university students rated most interventions (reducing drugs and alcohol, stopping drugs and alcohol, treatment instead of prosecution, providing condoms, harm reduction broadly) as at least somewhat acceptable; only pill testing was rated as less than acceptable.In addition, interventions that require community resources were rated as less acceptable than encouraging the user to reduce or stop use.I also evaluated the association of acceptability ratings with participants' levels of sensation seeking, health locus of control, and personal substance use.Intervention acceptance was not correlated with participants' levels of sensation seeking.However, participants' health locus of control was correlated with pill testing, reducing alcohol, providing condoms and iii treatment instead of prosecution.Acceptance did not vary as a function of respondents' drug use history.In response to open-ended questions, the most frequently identified advantages of interventions were reducing substance use and related problems, improving physical health and well-being, and increasing awareness.Ineffectiveness, encouraging substance use, and increasing resistance were the most frequently identified disadvantages of interventions.
Author: Erica Hoffmann
Institution: Bowling Green State University
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2262613765