Use APF’s New Tools to Measure Substance Use Disorder Knowledge in Your Community

Understanding the science of substance use disorders (SUD), including prevention, treatment, and recovery, is critical to how individuals and communities respond to addiction. Yet despite decades of research, misconceptions about SUDs remain widespread, shaping not only how people think and act towards individuals who are struggling, but also how patients seek care.

Strengthening addiction literacy—the ability to access, understand, and apply information about SUDs—is essential to removing barriers, improving engagement in care, and helping people make informed decisions about their health and the health of those around them. Higher levels of SUD literacy are associated with reduced stigma, greater confidence in responding to addiction, and improved engagement in prevention and treatment efforts.

To support this effort, the Addiction Policy Forum and researchers from the University of Delaware developed and validated two new tools to measure SUD knowledge across prevention, treatment, and recovery: the Substance Use Disorder Prevention Knowledge Scale and the Substance Use Disorder Knowledge Scale.

“We encourage our partners in the field to use these free and validated resources in their communities and organizations,” says Jessica Hulsey, one of the developers of the scales and Executive Director of the Addiction Policy Forum. “By measuring what people actually know about addiction, we can identify knowledge gaps in our communities, evaluate education and prevention efforts, assess patient knowledge and tailor psychoeducation, and strengthen strategies to reduce stigma.”

“Improving how we measure knowledge is a critical step toward improving addiction literacy, while also better understanding how knowledge relates to stigma,” says Dr. Valerie Earnshaw, lead author of the study. “Validated tools like these scales provide a practical way to measure what people know, identify gaps, and strengthen efforts to deliver accurate, actionable information across communities.”