Community-level determinants of stakeholder perceptions of community stigma toward people with opioid use disorders, harm reduction services and treatment in the HEALing Communities Study

Original research
by
Davis, Alissa et al

Release Date

2023

Geography

USA

Language of Resource

English

Full Text Available

No

Open Access / OK to Reproduce

No

Peer Reviewed

Yes

Objective

We examined whether rurality, social inequity, and racialized segregation across communities from four states in the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) were associated with 1) greater perceived community stigma toward people treated for opioid use disorder (OUD), 2) greater perceived intervention stigma toward medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and 3) greater perceived intervention stigma toward naloxone by community stakeholders in the HEALing Communities Study (HCS).

Findings/Key points

On average, the perceived community OUD stigma scale score of stakeholders from rural communities was 4% higher, stigma toward MOUD was 6% higher, and stigma toward naloxone was 10% higher than among stakeholders from urban communities. No significant differences in the three stigma variables were found among communities based on racialized segregation or social inequity.

Design/methods

Cross-sectional survey (n=801)

Keywords

Stigma
Rural/remote
Equity