Language preferences and impact of labels on the lived experience of people who use heroin

Abstract

AbstractBackground Non-judgmental language to refer to people who use drugs is replacing terms that can be stigmatizing. A study by Pivovarova and Stein found people in treatment for heroin use preferred person-first terms. Aim one of our study is to add to knowledge of term preferences among people in the US who use heroin by replicating the Pivovarova and Stein study with a sample of people who use heroin but are not in treatment. Aim two is to extend findings with insights from qualitative analysis.Methods Our mixed method study replicated survey questions on what labels are preferred. Qualitative questions probed the meaning of terms and the impact of changing language. We recruited 206 participants between November 2019 and May 2021. We compare the results of the treatment sample with a not-in-treatment sample.Results Both similarities and differences were found in the quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis revealed that only a third of our sample indicated that changes in language were helpful, while another third indicated that changing the terms did not result in changing attitudes towards people who use drugs.Conclusion While stigmatizing language should be avoided, language is constantly evolving and subject to political trends. More emphasis is needed on changing attitudes toward people who use drugs.Keywords: Stigmalanguage preferenceslived experienceheroinmixed methodslabelsattitudesreplication studies AcknowledgementsThis research would not have been possible without our participants, and we appreciate the time and effort they took to share aspects of their lives with us. We would also like to thank peers who use drugs for their help with data collection, and Jeffrey Turner for preliminary analysis of parts of the data. Further, we would like to thank the team at the Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition and the North Jersey Community Research Initiative (NJCRI) for assisting with recruitment.Disclosure statementThe authors of this research declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.Additional informationFundingThe study was partially funded by a Bentley University Faculty Affairs Committee Grant (2019).