Research and advocacy emphasize the importance of naloxone saturation not just in terms of how much naloxone is distributed but also to whom, by whom, and how it is distributed. Given the nuanced ways in which naloxone is distributed, community experts involved with naloxone distribution and harm reduction work can help researchers better assess naloxone availability. The objective of this paper is to describe collaborating with community experts to obtain a diverse sample and high response rate of a statewide survey investigating community-based naloxone availability. This survey is part of a larger study that aims to develop and disseminate visual tools, such as a website with coverage maps to show naloxone sources, availability, and associated cost by county. Community experts, consisting of advisory board members and experts on the study team, represented the different constituencies from which study data would be sampled and for their expertise on community harm reduction work. Surveys were sent to individuals if they were identified as a representative of a program believed to potentially distribute naloxone at no-cost to community members in NC by the study team or community advisory board. Data collection occurred over the course of 8 months (June 2023-January 2024) and consisted of emails, phone calls, and mailers. The overall response rate was 81.4%. In collaboration with community experts, the study team surveyed eight additional program types from the original sample list. Community experts helped identify contact information for program types and participated in triangulation during data cleaning. Four out of five program types with response rates above 80% had received personalized emails from a community expert. Community experts informed decision-making on survey design, sampling, survey distribution, and data cleaning processes for a survey designed to identify community-based sources of no-cost naloxone across NC. The immense contributions of the community experts for this statewide survey, which we are confident improved our sample, also likely increased the survey response rate. This underscores the importance of engaging community members in every step of research to produce relevant and meaningful outcomes.
Shubel et al. (Thu,) studied this question.