ArticlePloS one2021
Public support for harm reduction: A population survey of Canadian adults.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stigma in substance-based and behavioural addictions: A systematic review.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Responding to an evolving crisis: Meeting the needs of a growing population who smoke their unregulated substances.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Characterizing changes to harm reduction site operations in British Columbia following the implementation of the decriminalization of drugs: Findings from a provincial survey.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- "We've lost a lot of lives:" the impact of the closure of North America's busiest supervised consumption site on people who use substances and the organizations that work with them.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Comfort in Providing Care and Associations With Attitudes Towards Substance Use: A Survey of Mental Health Clinicians at an Urban Hospital in Vancouver, Canada.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025Article
- Moral foundations underpinning attitudes toward supervised consumption services across Canada's prairie provinces.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Characteristics and Risk of Adverse Mental Health Events Amongst Users of the National Overdose Response Service (NORS) Telephone Hotline.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2025Article
- Perspectives of Canadian Healthcare and Harm Reduction Workers on Mobile Overdose Response Services: A Qualitative Study.Substance use & addiction journal · 2024Article
- Effects of the Communities that Heal (CTH) intervention on perceived opioid-related community stigma in the HEALing Communities Study: results of a multi-site, community-level, cluster-randomized trial.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- 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.The International journal on drug policy · 2023Article
- "It's starting to weigh on me": Exploring the Experiences and Support Needs of Harm Reduction Staff in Connecticut using the Social-Ecological Model.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Attitudes towards people who use substances: a survey of mental health clinicians from an urban hospital in British Columbia.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Harm reduction strategies in acute care for people who use alcohol and/or drugs: A scoping review.PloS one · 2023Article
- Canadian newspaper coverage on harm reduction featuring bereaved mothers: A mixed methods analysis.PloS one · 2023Article
- Philanthropic donor perspectives about providing harm reduction services for people living with HIV/AIDS in a hospital setting.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
- The Impact of Stigma on People with Opioid Use Disorder, Opioid Treatment, and Policy.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 9 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We described public views toward harm reduction among Canadian adults and tested a social exposure model predicting support for these contentious services, drawing on theories in the morality policy, intergroup relations, addiction, and media communication literatures. A quota sample of 4645 adults (18+ years), randomly drawn from an online research panel and stratified to match age and sex distributions of adults within and across Canadian provinces, was recruited in June 2018. Participants completed survey items assessing support for harm reduction for people who use drugs (PWUD) and for seven harm reduction interventions. Additional items assessed exposure to media coverage on harm reduction, and scales assessing stigma toward PWUD (α = .72), personal familiarity with PWUD (α = .84), and disease model beliefs about addiction (α = .79). Most (64%) Canadians supported harm reduction (provincial estimates = 60% - 73%). Five of seven interventions received majority support, including: outreach (79%), naloxone (72%), drug checking (70%), needle distribution (60%) and supervised drug consumption (55%). Low-threshold opioid agonist treatment and safe inhalation interventions received less support (49% and 44%). Our social exposure model, adjusted for respondent sex, household income, political views, and education, exhibited good fit and accounted for 17% of variance in public support for harm reduction. Personal familiarity with PWUD and disease model beliefs about addiction were directly associated with support (βs = .07 and -0.10, respectively), and indirectly influenced public support via stigmatized attitudes toward PWUD (βs = 0.01 and -0.01, respectively). Strategies to increase support for harm reduction could problematize certain disease model beliefs (e.g., "There are only two possibilities for an alcoholic or drug addict-permanent abstinence or death") and creating opportunities to reduce social distance between PWUD, the public, and policy makers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.