Publications by authors named "Alicia Sparks"

Objective: More than half of United States college students are harmed by the drinkers around them. If findings from research on adults generalize to college students, then there will be consequences associated with these alcohol-related harms to others (AHTOs). This study aimed to determine whether harms from others' drinking were associated with key academic and mental health indicators of the college experience.

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Research on spouses' adjustment after military deployment has focused primarily on female spouses of male service members; little is known about how adjustment differs by gender. We used Walsh's family resilience framework to examine communication, belief system, organizational factors, and other stressors, likely associated with postdeployment adjustment. Using Millennium Cohort Family Study data, logistic regressions assessed risk and protective factors on spouses' and service members' time to adjust, exploring whether spouse gender moderated their associations.

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Introduction: Excessive alcohol use is a significant problem in the military. Although there is a growing emphasis on family-centered alcohol prevention approaches, little is known about the interplay between partners' drinking behaviors. This study examines how service members and their spouses influence each other's drinking behavior over time and explores the complex individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors that may contribute to alcohol use.

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Objective: Alcohol use in the military is prevalent and has short- and long-term health, safety, and career consequences. Although several studies have examined service members' alcohol consumption, few have focused on alcohol use among military spouses. This study assessed factors at individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels to determine associations with risky alcohol use among military spouses.

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We surveyed users of a behavioral health helpline serving New York City and surroundings, to assess their helpline experiences, changes in psychological distress after contacting the helpline, and factors associated with differences in these measures. We surveyed users twice: roughly 2 weeks following their helpline contact, from 4/2019 to 9/2019 (N = 1097 respondents) and again 6 months following contact, from 10/2019 to 3/2020 (N = 732 respondents). Eighty-nine percent of respondents reported that contacting the helpline helped them deal a little or a lot more effectively with their problems.

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Background: Estimates suggest approximately 2.4% of service members, and 15% of service members who have engaged in recent combat, report misusing pain relievers in the past year. This study explores the extent to which military spouses' obtainment of opioids is associated with their service member partners' obtainment of opioid prescriptions, in addition to other factors such as service member health, state prescribing patterns, and sociodemographic characteristics.

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Introduction: Military spouses play a critical role in supporting military service members, and thus, their experiences may have a significant impact on the well-being, readiness, and resilience of the U.S. Armed Forces.

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Introduction: The use and misuse of opioids by active service members has been examined in several studies, but little is known about their spouses' opioid use. This study estimates the number of military spouses who received high-risk or long-term opioid prescriptions between 2010 and 2014, and addresses how the Military Health System can help prevent risky prescribing in order to improve military force readiness.

Materials And Methods: This study used data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, a nationwide survey of 9,872 spouses of service members with 2 to 5 years of military service, augmented with information from the military's Pharmacy Data Transaction Service about prescriptions for controlled drugs dispensed to these service members' spouses.

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Background: The health and well-being of military spouses directly contribute to a robust military force by enabling the spouse to better support the active duty member's career. In order to understand the overall health and well-being of military spouses, we assessed health indicators among military spouses using the Healthy People 2020 framework and examined associations of these health indicators with military experiences and psychosocial factors.

Methods: Using data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, a U.

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The legalization of medical and recreational cannabis use has occurred ahead of science. The current evidence base has poor utility for determining if cannabis products can meet the standards of safety, efficacy, and quality intrinsic to modern medicine, and for informing regulation of cannabis as a legal intoxicant. Individual jurisdictions that pass cannabis reforms may not have adequate resources to support the level of new scientific research needed to inform regulatory actions; this could make it difficult to keep a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar cannabis industry in check.

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Reducing youth exposure to alcohol advertising is a global health priority. In most countries around the world, the alcohol industry is given the opportunity to regulate itself with respect to advertising practices. Generally, the alcohol industry self-regulations are lax, allowing youth to be disproportionately exposed to alcohol advertising.

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Sub-Saharan Africa bears 69 % of the global burden of HIV, and strong evidence indicates an association between alcohol consumption, HIV risk behavior, and HIV incidence. However, characteristics of efficacious HIV-alcohol risk reduction interventions are not well known. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the characteristics and synthesize the findings of HIV-alcohol risk reduction interventions implemented in the region and reported in peer-reviewed journals.

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Introduction: As the tobacco market expands, so too have the opportunities for youth to be introduced to nicotine. The goal of this study was to identify product choice for initial tobacco trial, correlates associated with product choice, and the relationship between first product and current cigarette smoking among college students.

Methods: A cross-sectional web survey of 3146 first-year students at 11 universities in North Carolina and Virginia was conducted in fall 2010.

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Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of in-person and webinar-delivered AFIX (Assessment, Feedback, Incentives, and eXchange) consultations for increasing adolescent vaccine coverage.

Methods: We randomly assigned 91 primary care clinics in North Carolina, serving 107 443 adolescents, to receive no consultation or an in-person or webinar AFIX consultation. We delivered in-person consultations in April through May 2011 and webinar consultations in May through August 2011.

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There is an increasing call for HIV prevention programs that target social determinants of HIV. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences and perceptions of 12 African American adolescents to identify important social and community targets for HIV prevention. We used photovoice methodology to engage adolescents in a critical analysis of their experiences to arrive at a deeper understanding of the social determinants of HIV and determine specific action steps to reduce HIV risk.

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