Motivational Interviewing to Increase Uptake of Drug Checking and Safe Drug Use Behaviors to Reduce Overdose

A hybrid type 1 study will be conducted to evaluate efficacy and preliminary implementation considerations for a novel intervention to promote uptake of drug checking services (DCS) and safer drug use behaviors among people who use drugs (PWUD) to reduce incidence of overdose (OD) and HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in San Diego County.

Along with ~50 other syringe services programs (SSPs) in the US, the Harm Reduction Coalition San Diego (HRCSD), a local SSP, recently launched CheckSD (San Diego), a DCS using test strips (TS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) that allows people to submit drug samples with non-nominal identifiers and obtain personalized results. While most existing DCS using FTIR offer some counseling, no theory-based interventions to increase DCS uptake and promote post-DCS adoption of safer drug use behaviors have been rigorously evaluated

588 PWUD who have not yet used CheckSD will be recruited into a two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) (N=294 per group). Recruitment sources will be the community and La Frontera study. Both arms will have access to CheckSD's standard of care (SOC) already available at SSP sites (i.e., FTIR, and overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND)). PWUD randomized to receive MI-CHANCE will receive it from HRCSD's peer counselors who will be trained in motivational interviewing (MI) to encourage CheckSD uptake and safer drug use behaviors. Those in the attention-control SOC arm will receive COVID-19 (coronavirus infection) and Hepatitis A education. All will undergo semi-annual follow-up for 30 months.

Primary Objective: To test the efficacy of MI-CHANCE on rates of combined fatal and non-fatal OD over 30 months and examine social cognitive theory (SCT)-informed mediators and moderators of intervention effects (i.e., knowledge, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy)