Interventions to increase naloxone access for undergraduate students: A systematic review of the literature

To identify and describe interventions that increase access to naloxone for undergraduate students.

A systematic review across 4 databases identified interventions that expand access to naloxone at colleges in the United States from 2015-2023. Three reviewers extracted the following data to create a narrative synthesis and summary of program elements: setting, rationale for intervention, timeline, intervention components, study size, collaboration, sustainability, outcomes and results.

Seven articles met inclusion criteria. Institutions' implemented naloxone interventions due to concerns for student safety and/or student overdose fatalities. Three universities collaborated with their School of Pharmacy for program design and/or dissemination, while two partnered with state-based naloxone distribution programs. Most programs combined opioid-overdose/naloxone training; four distributed naloxone kits. Three studies included pre/post-outcomes, and all reported increases in participant knowledge, attitudes, and/or ability to respond to an overdose.

Our results indicates an opportunity for wide-scale implementation of undergraduate naloxone programs within US colleges. However, more rigorous implementation research is needed to identify barriers and facilitators to program feasibility, acceptability, and participation.