Dec. 14, 2020 Source: Truth Initiative Featured Photo Source: Unsplash, Michael Longmire
A truth® public education and prevention campaign is helping young people understand the dangers of opioid misuse
The Truth About Opioids, a nearly three-year-long effort from Truth Initiative to contribute its youth prevention and education expertise to combatting America’s opioid misuse epidemic, is helping young people understand the facts about opioids, the risk of addiction and the crucial role they can play in solving the crisis within their communities. Evaluations of the campaign show shifts in young people’s knowledge and attitudes about the dangers of opioid misuse and around opioid use disease stigma, underscoring the importance of public education and prevention — alongside emergency response, treatment and recovery — in the comprehensive effort to combat the epidemic.
Young Americans are especially vulnerable to misunderstanding the risks associated with opioid misuse, addiction, and the dangerous spiral down from prescription to illicit use. An estimated 1,300 young adults misused an opioid prescription for the first time each day in 2018 and overdose deaths in the U.S. continue to climb after reaching record numbers in 2019, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Truth Initiative began confronting this crisis in 2018 because of its record of success in tobacco prevention — the organization has prevented over 3 million youth and young adults from smoking since 2000 and helped bring the youth cigarette use rate down from 23% in 2000 to a historic low of 3.7% in 2019 — and the recognition and credibility of the truth brand, which has nearly 80% awareness among young people.
Truth Initiative developed The Truth About Opioids using its proven-successful tobacco prevention strategy — giving young people the facts and empowering them to make their own decisions — based on formative research and rigorous evaluation. Research that found a significant knowledge gap about opioids and their risks, as well as a desire among young people to be part of a solution, guided the campaign’s focus on achieving key outcomes: increasing awareness of the risk of misuse, decreasing stigma of addiction to help young people understand it can happen to them, and driving them to seek and share more information. The campaign, which featured a series of different messages, was rigorously tested both before messages were placed in market and in national and focused local markets after airing. The pre- and post-market evaluations of different components of the campaign show that it is achieving these key outcomes among its target audience:
Increasing opioid misuse awareness: The campaign drove a 46% increase in those who strongly agreed that opioid dependence can happen in just five days among young people who engaged with the campaign and a 27% decrease in those who strongly agreed with the statement “If I got a prescription opioid from a doctor, I would share some with my friends.” Nearly three-quarters (73.7%) of youth and young adults perceived using opioids without a prescription even once or twice as “high risk,” an increase from 66%.
Decreasing stigma: There was a 36% increase in those who strongly agreed that anyone can become addicted to prescription opioids and a 20.6% increase in the number of young people who said someone like them could become dependent on prescription opioids.
Prompting intentions to seek and share information: Young people were 600% more likely to search for the terms “opioid epidemic” and the campaign tagline, “know the truth” after seeing the campaign. There was a 20.4% increase in those who reported intending to talk to a friend or loved one about their opioid use and an 11.5% increase in those who intended to look up information about the opioid epidemic.
The campaign has also received recognitions for its creativity and effectiveness, including an Emmy award. This report details the development, evaluation, and future of the campaign.
Do you know someone who is addicted to opioids or prescription drugs? How has this article helped them? How can you prevent prescription drug addiction?
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