Rethinking ‘carriage’ of take-home naloxone

Abstract

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).