A Follow Up to the AARP Age-Friendly Community Survey Through a Focus Group Study.

In an effort to help communities plan for their burgeoning aging population, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has facilitated community surveys to enable older adults to rate the current state of their own community for "aging in place." This Focus Group Study extended the findings of the AARP Age-Friendly Community Survey in a small-sized New England City, adding to our knowledge of an older adult population. In order to elicit the points of view of older adults in one small New England city, six focus groups were conducted via Zoom during the height of the pandemic, from the spring and fall of 2020 on the topic of aging in place.

Resilience is associated with importance of quitting in homeless adult smokers.

Objective: The prevalence of cigarette smoking in homeless populations is disproportionately high with rates between 57 and 80%. Resilience may affect a smoker's ability to successfully quit smoking. This cross-sectional study examined the association between resilience levels and smoking behaviors in homeless adults.

Improving COPD Care in a Medically Underserved Primary Care Clinic: A Qualitative Study of Patient Perspectives.

We conducted a focus group study in an urban hospital-based primary care teaching clinic serving an indigent and Hispanic (predominantly Puerto Rican) population in New England in order to learn how patients with Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) perceive their disease, how they experience their medical care, and the barriers they face managing their disease and following medical recommendations. The research team included medical doctors, nurses, a medical anthropologist, a clinical pharmacist, a hospital interpreter, and a systems analyst. Four focus groups were conducted in Spanish and English in April and May 2014.

Alcohol relapse repetition, gender, and predictive validity.

Earlier exploratory work on a scoring algorithm for the Reasons for Drinking Questionnaire. Exploratory findings from the Reasons for Drinking Questionnaire presented a number of interesting findings, but were limited by a fairly low consistency in type of relapse between the first relapse and the second relapse (63%). This scoring algorithm objectively classifies alcohol relapses into one of three types (negative affect, social pressure, or craving/cued).

Homelessness and substance misuse: a tale of two cities.

In this article we examine the relationship between alcohol and drug misuse among the literally homeless (those living out of doors and in emergency shelters) in Hartford, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island, two northeastern U.S. cities of comparable size.