The Impact of Community Infrastructure Reinvestment Programs on Opioid Misuse and Opioid Overdose

Housing and zoning policies that cause geographically clustered economic hardship and lack of economic opportunity often result in neighborhood disinvestment and increased neighborhood disorder. Neighborhood disorder—deterioration of the urban landscape, also known as blight—significantly impacts opioid misuse, including opioid initiation, injection drug use, opioid use disorder development and duration, and risk of opioid-involved overdose. Interventions to improve disorder have shown significant positive impacts on neighborhood crime and community health. No studies have yet investigated the degree to which neighborhood disorder interventions influence opioid misuse or associated overdose risk. The broad objective of this study is to investigate the impact of community infrastructure reinvestment programs on opioid misuse and opioid overdose. In Philadelphia, government, community, and academic partnerships have resulted in infrastructure-based approaches (PHS Philadelphia LandCare and Basic Systems Repair Program) to remediate vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and dilapidated homes. These programs, which were designed to improve neighborhood disorder in communities with little to no green space, may have distal effects on opioid misuse and associated overdose risk. Previous Philadelphia studies have shown significant reductions in crime and improved stress and depression for residents on blocks with blight remediation. This study will use spatial analysis methods and systematic social observation to address HEAL’s RFA DA-23-051 Preventing Opioid Misuse and Co-Occurring Conditions by Intervening on Social Determinants. Specific aims are: (1) Investigate whether street block-level indicators of opioid misuse differ on blocks with blight remediation activities using systematic social observation methods for primary data collection of litter from opioid misuse (e.g., syringes, tourniquets) and harm reduction paraphernalia (e.g., wound care, naloxone); (2) Examine if fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose rates improved with remediation activities using a longitudinal spatial panel approach with fatal overdose data from Philadelphia’s medical examiner and nonfatal overdose data from hospital emergency care visits; (3) Explore mechanisms by which remediation activities improve neighborhood indicators of opioid misuse and fatal and nonfatal overdose rates, including improved community social capital and social cohesion (measured by primary data collection of neighborhood structures related to these concepts), using systematic social observation and spatial analysis methods. This study will examine the impact of highly innovative place-based public health interventions on opioid misuse and fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose. Findings will provide support for expanding neighborhood disorder remediation projects in Philadelphia and promote similar public health-based policy and community-level health interventions for opioid misuse and overdose prevention in other cities.