Exploring Gender Differences in Receipt of the 5As for Smoking Cessation for Recently-Diagnosed Cancer Patients (ECOG-ACRIN EAQ171CD).

Introduction: Smoking cessation is important for men and women diagnosed with cancer. Oncology clinicians should encourage all patients to quit and offer resources to help them do so, following the 5As framework (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange follow-up).

Method: This study tests gender differences in self-reported receipt of the 5As by an oncology provider among 306 recently-diagnosed male and female cancer patients.

Organizational readiness to implement bundled interventions to increase HIV linkage and retention in care and treatment: results from the Black Women First (BWF) initiative.

Background: Evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions designed to address gaps in the HIV care continuum have the potential to improve HIV care and treatment. However, inadequate organizational readiness can derail intervention uptake, prevent the integration of interventions, and contribute to suboptimal HIV treatment outcomes. This study sought to understand organizational readiness to implement bundled interventions for Black women with HIV and inform facilitators and barriers to implementation.

Convenings as a tool for enhancing implementation strategies: lessons from the Black Women First initiative.

Background: The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) project identified 73 strategies for supporting the implementation of a novel intervention and evidence-informed practices. In this paper, we explore convenings, which engage stakeholders in proactive dialogues, as a mechanism to deliver multiple strategies that support sites adapting and implementing evidence-informed bundled interventions for Black women with HIV.

Methods: We use an instrumental case study design to explore strategies embedded in biannual convenings hosted by the Black Women First Initiative (BWF) Evaluation and Technical Assistance Provider (ETAP).

The effect of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on smoking status, quit attempts, and receipt of cessation support among adults with cancer: Results from nine ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group trials.

Background: Tobacco use is associated with adverse outcomes among patients diagnosed with cancer. Socioeconomic determinants influence access and utilization of tobacco treatment; little is known about the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage (NSD) and tobacco assessment, assistance, and cessation among patients diagnosed with cancer.

Methods: A modified Cancer Patient Tobacco Use Questionnaire (C-TUQ) was administered to patients enrolled in nine ECOG-ACRIN clinical trials.

Cigarette and Alternative Tobacco Product Use among Adult Cancer Survivors Enrolled in 9 ECOG-ACRIN Clinical Trials.

Background: While cigarette smoking has declined among the U.S. general population, sale and use of non-cigarette alternative tobacco products (ATP; e.

The Black women first initiative: using implementation science to examine bundled interventions to improve care and treatment coordination for Black women with HIV.

Background: Black cisgender and transgender women are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic compared to women of other racial and ethnic identities. Twelve demonstration sites across the United States are adapting, implementing and evaluating a comprehensive bundle of two or more evidence informed interventions to improve health and outcomes and quality of life for Black women with HIV.

Methods: Guided by Greenhalgh's Conceptual Model of Diffusion of Innovations in Health Service Organizations and Proctor's model for use of implementation strategies and evaluating implementation, service and client outcomes, this mixed methods study documents outcomes at the client, organization, and system level.

Study protocol for a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation trial testing virtual tobacco treatment in oncology practices [Smokefree Support Study 2.0].

Background: Persistent smoking among patients diagnosed with cancer is associated with adverse clinical outcomes, yet an evidence-based tobacco use intervention has not been well-integrated into cancer care in community oncology settings. This paper describes the protocol of a nation-wide clinical trial conducted by the ECOG-ACRIN National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Base to assess the effectiveness of a virtual tobacco treatment intervention and the process of implementing tobacco treatment in NCORP community oncology settings.

Methods/design: This two-arm, multisite (n: 49 NCORP sites) hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial compares the effectiveness of a Virtual Intervention Treatment (VIT) versus an Enhanced Usual Control (EUC) among English and Spanish speaking patients recently diagnosed with cancer, reporting current smoking and receiving care at a participating NCORP Community or Minority/Underserved Site.

Investigating documentation of alcohol and non-medical substance use in oncology treatment: an electronic health record review.

Purpose: Little is known about non-tobacco substance use (SU) and its treatment in cancer patients. National guidelines address tobacco only, and assessment of SU in cancer patients is not standardized. It is not clear how oncology clinicians assess, document, and follow-up on SU.

HIV Related Knowledge, HIV Testing Decision-Making, and Perceptions of Alcohol Use as a Risk Factor for HIV among Black and African American Women.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic disproportionately affects Black and African American women in the United States. This study examined the extent of HIV related knowledge, HIV testing decision-making, and perceptions of alcohol use as a risk factor for HIV among Black and African American women in urban and suburban communities. Seven focus groups were conducted with 37 women aged 18 to 49 residing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Evaluating culturally and linguistically integrated care for Latinx adults with mental and substance use disorders.

To evaluate changes in health and health care utilization outcomes for Latinx adults with substance use and mental disorders receiving integrated behavioral and primary health care. Study sample included enrollees who completed baseline, 6-month and 12-month assessments ( = 107). Study outcomes were depression symptom severity, anxiety symptom severity, illicit drug use, emergency department utilization and homelessness status.

Health care utilization and spending among privately insured children with medical complexity.

Children with medical complexity have high health service utilization and health expenditures that can impose significant financial burdens. This study examined these issues for families with children enrolled in US private health plans. Using IBM Watson/Truven Analytics℠ MarketScan® commercial claims and encounters data (2012-2014), we analyzed through regression models, the differences in health care utilization and spending of disaggregated health care services by health plan types and children's medical complexity levels.

Access to care among children with disabilities enrolled in the MassHealth CommonHealth Buy-In program.

Children with disabilities utilize more health-care services and incur higher costs than other children do. Medicaid Buy-In programs for children with disabilities have the potential to increase access to benefits while reducing out-of-pocket costs for families whose income exceeds Medicaid eligibility. This study sought to understand how parents and caregivers of Massachusetts children with disabilities perceive access to care under CommonHealth, Massachusetts's Medicaid Buy-In program.

Preventing Opioid Use Disorders among Fishing Industry Workers.

Fishing industry workers are at high risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and injuries. Prescription opioids used to treat pain injuries may put these workers at increased risk for developing substance disorders. Using a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, formative research was conducted to inform the eventual development of relevant interventions to prevent and reduce opioid use disorders among fishing industry workers.

Mental Health Services Utilization and Expenditures Among Children Enrolled in Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.

Background And Objectives: Mental illness in children increases the risk of developing mental health disorders in adulthood, and reduces physical and emotional well-being across the life course. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA, 2008) aimed to improve access to mental health treatment by requiring employer-sponsored health plans to include insurance coverage for behavioral health services.

Methods: Investigators used IBM Watson/Truven Analytics MarketScan claims data (2007-2013) to examine: (1) the distribution of mental illness; (2) trends in utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures; and (3) the overall effect of the MHPAEA on mental health services utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures among privately-insured children aged 3 to 17 with mental health disorders.

Are decreases in drug use risk associated with reductions in HIV sex risk behaviors among adults in an urban hospital primary care setting?

Drug use is associated with increased sexual risk behaviors. We examined whether decreases in drug use risk are associated with reduction in HIV-related sex risk behaviors among adults. Data was from a cohort of participants (n = 574) identified by drug use screening in a randomized trial of brief intervention for drug use in an urban primary care setting.

Alcohol Use and HIV Testing in a National Sample of Women.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minority groups and women in the United States. Prevention research suggests that reduced alcohol use and increased HIV testing are associated with lower incidence of HIV transmission among high-risk populations. Multivariable logistic regression analyses of the 2009 National Health Interview Survey data were performed for a national sample of 15,470 adult women to examine the relationship between alcohol use and likelihood of HIV testing.

Access to oral health care and self-reported health status among low-income adults living with HIV/AIDS.

Objective: We identified factors associated with improved self-reported health status in a sample of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) following enrollment in oral health care.

Methods: Data were collected from 1,499 enrollees in the Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau's Special Projects of National Significance Innovations in Oral Health Care Initiative. Data were gathered from 2007-2010 through in-person interviews at 14 sites; self-reported health status was measured using the SF-8™ Health Survey's physical and mental health summary scores.

Retention of people living with HIV/AIDS in oral health care.

Objective: We identified factors associated with retention in oral health care for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the impact of care retention on oral health-related outcomes.

Methods: We collected interview, laboratory value, clinic visit, and service utilization data from 1,237 HIV-positive patients entering dental care from May 2007 to August 2009, with at least an 18-month observation period. Retention in care was defined as two or more dental visits at least 12 months apart.

Methamphetamine use and dental problems among adults enrolled in a program to increase access to oral health services for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Objective: We examined the association between methamphetamine (meth) use and dental problems in a large sample of HIV-positive adults.

Methods: We gathered data from 2,178 interviews across 14 sites of the U.S.

From bulk to single-cell classification of the filamentous growing Streptomyces bacteria by means of Raman spectroscopy.

Classification of Raman spectra recorded from single cells is commonly applied to bacteria that exhibit small sizes of approximately 1 to 2 μm. Here, we study the possibility to adopt this classification approach to filamentous bacteria of the genus Streptomyces. The hyphae can reach extensive lengths of up to 35 μm, which can correspond to a single cell identified in light microscopy.

How to pre-process Raman spectra for reliable and stable models?

Raman spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics is gaining more and more importance for answering biological questions. This results from the fact that Raman spectroscopy is non-invasive, marker-free and water is not corrupting Raman spectra significantly. However, Raman spectra contain despite Raman fingerprint information other contributions like fluorescence background, Gaussian noise, cosmic spikes and other effects dependent on experimental parameters, which have to be removed prior to the analysis, in order to ensure that the analysis is based on the Raman measurements and not on other effects.

Raman spectroscopic detection of physiology changes in plasmid-bearing Escherichia coli with and without antibiotic treatment.

Bacterial resistances against antibiotics are increasingly problematic for medical treatment of pathogenic bacteria, e.g., in hospitals.

Towards a fast, high specific and reliable discrimination of bacteria on strain level by means of SERS in a microfluidic device.

The interest in a fast, high specific and reliable detection method for bacteria identification is increasing. We will show that the application of vibrational spectroscopy is feasible for the validation of bacteria in microfluidic devices. For this purpose, reproducible and specific spectral pattern as well as the establishment of large databases are essential for statistical analysis.