The Peer-Based Retention of People Who Use Drugs in Rural Research

This study builds on the National Rural Opioids Initiative (NROI), a multi-state consortium studying access to care, overdose, and infectious consequences of opioid use disorder (OUD) in Rural America. It includes counties in rural Oregon and Appalachian Kentucky and Ohio with high rates of drug overdose.

Aim 1: Conduct a randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-driven study retention intervention for retaining PWUD in Kentucky, Ohio, and Oregon Rural Opioid Initiative sites.

Aim 2: Elicit preferences of PWUD in the Kentucky, Ohio, and Oregon Rural Opioid Initiative sites Aim 2a: Administer baseline survey of discrete choice experiment preferences for participating in clinical trials of potential medical innovations (e.g. new treatments for OUD, HIV, and HCV vaccination). Aim 2a will be accomplished as part of the NROI studies. The data will then be merged for PROUD-R² analyses.

Aim 2b: Compare participant survey preferences regarding willingness to participate in clinical trials at baseline, 6, and 12 months.

Aim 3: Explore participant perceptions of clinical research participation and retention among PWUD in rural America.

Inclusion criteria

NROI eligibility criteria: Participants are eligible to enroll in the NROI if they 1) live in the study area, 2) have recently injected drugs or report opioid use to get high without injection, and 3) are age 18 or older.

NROI participants enrolled after April 2019 are eligible to participate in the PROUD R2 study.

Participants enrolling as study buddies will be eligible if they 1) live in the study area, 2) are age 18 or older; they do not need to have recent or past substance use to qualify.

No eligible participants are excluded.

Exclusion criteria

Under 18 years of age