Publications by authors named "Alana Biggers"

Article Synopsis
  • * Mindfulness, a technique that promotes increased awareness and stress reduction, has shown potential in small studies for its positive effects on stress and cancer-related inflammation.
  • * This study aims to evaluate an 8-week mindfulness program for 40 Black women at high risk for colorectal cancer, assessing both the intervention's feasibility and its impact on various health markers related to cancer risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide. Although the overall incidence of CRC has been decreasing over the past 40 y, early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC), which is defined as a CRC diagnosis in patients aged >50 y has increased. In this Perspective, we highlight and summarize the association between diet quality and excess adiposity, and EOCRC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) is defined as a diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) in individuals younger than 50 years of age. While overall CRC rates in the United States (US) decreased between 2001 and 2018, EOCRC rates have increased. This research project aims to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Time-Restricted Eating (TRE), Mindfulness, or TRE combined with Mindfulness among young to middle-aged adults at risk of EOCRC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Clinical pharmacists and health coaches using mobile health (mHealth) tools, such as telehealth and text messaging, may improve blood glucose levels in African American and Latinx populations with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To determine whether clinical pharmacists and health coaches using mHealth tools can improve hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial included 221 African American or Latinx patients with type 2 diabetes and elevated HbA1c (≥8%) from an academic medical center in Chicago.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We explored the relationship between the Sleep Hygiene Practices Scale (SHPS) and sleep quality and sleep-related impairment in Black and Latinx adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM).

Methods: Forty Black and Latinx adults with T2DM participated. Self-reported measures include the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Sleep Disturbance (SD) and Sleep-Related Impairment (SRI) measures, and SHPS (domains include sleep schedule and timing, arousal-related behaviors, poor eating/drinking habits prior to sleep, and poor sleep environment).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Aggressive management of blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol through medication and lifestyle adherence is necessary to minimize the adverse health outcomes of type 2 diabetes. However, numerous psychosocial and environmental barriers to adherence prevent low-income, urban, and ethnic minority populations from achieving their management goals, resulting in diabetes complications. Health coaches working with clinical pharmacists represent a promising strategy for addressing common diabetes management barriers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

African Americans report higher rates of chronic stress compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Consequently, chronic stress contributes to disproportionately higher rates of poor health outcomes among African Americans. Mindfulness meditation is a well-established and studied strategy to reduce stress and potentially improve health outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Study Objectives: Text messaging (TM) may provide an inexpensive and convenient method for self-reported sleep assessment. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of a TM sleep diary among a racial/ethnic minority population with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A convenience sample of 40 participants with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes was recruited.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We analyzed two cohorts of people with type 2 diabetes to evaluate the relationships between depression, sleep quality, and history of hypoglycemia.

Research Design And Methods: Two adult cohorts from Chicago (n = 193) and Bangkok, Thailand (n = 282) with type 2 diabetes completed questionnaires to assess sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and hypoglycemia frequency. Proportional odds logistic regression models for each cohort adjusted for duration of therapy, insulin and sulfonylurea management, and other factors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) endorses routine screening for genetic risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer as a component of primary health care. Implementation of this recommendation may prove challenging, especially in clinics serving disadvantaged communities.

Methods: The authors tested the feasibility of implementing the USPSTF mandate at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) to identify women who were eligible for genetic counseling (GC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose To investigate the role of out-of-pocket cost supports through the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy on disparities in breast cancer hormonal therapy persistence and adherence by race or ethnicity. Methods A nationwide cohort of women age ≥ 65 years with a breast cancer operation between 2006 and 2007 and at least one prescription filled for oral breast cancer hormonal therapy was identified from all Medicare D enrollees. The association of race or ethnicity with nonpersistence (90 consecutive days with no claims for a hormonal therapy prescription) and nonadherence (medication possession rate < 80%) was examined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) substantially reduce breast cancer mortality in clinical trials, but high rates of nonadherence to these long-term oral therapies have reduced their impact outside of trials. We examined the association of generic AI availability with AI adherence among a large national breast cancer cohort.

Methods: Using a quasi-experimental prepost design, we examined the effect of generic AI introductions (7/2010 and 4/2011) on adherence among a national cohort of women with incident breast cancer in 2006 and 2007 who were enrolled in the Medicare D pharmaceutical coverage program.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke charts a course for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and collaborating public health agencies, with all interested partners and the public at large, to help in promoting achievement of national goals for preventing heart disease and stroke over the next 2 decades--through 2020 and beyond. The Action Plan was released in April 2003 and includes 24 recommendations and 69 proposed action steps to be implemented now and in the years ahead. To set priorities for action and to define a limited set of concrete tasks for immediate implementation, a process was undertaken that included CDC and lead partners, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, as well as the Action Plan Working Group and other members of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF