Opioid Use Stigma: An Examination of Student Attitudes on Harm Reduction Strategies

Understanding how the public views harm reduction strategies may help inform researchers on how to reduce related stigma and barriers to help-seeking. The current study explored whether stigma towards those who use opioids was affected by gender and type of harm reduction strategy used. Undergraduate students (N = 328) were randomly assigned to read one of six vignettes varying by gender and the type of harm reduction strategy: no harm reduction, opioid agonist therapy (OAT), or safe consumption sites (SCSs). Results demonstrated that participants were less stigmatizing towards the character who engaged in OAT compared to the character with no harm reduction. There was also a pattern demonstrating that SCSs may be perceived more negatively than OAT, although these differences only met conventional significance, not adjusted/corrected alphas. There were no significant effects for gender. Qualitative results revealed that participants held misconceptions about harm reduction. Implications and future directions are discussed.