Publications by authors named "J KOUTSKY"

Introduction: Most smoking cessation programs lack strategies to reach relapsed participants and encourage a new quit attempt. We used a multimodal intervention to encourage past quitline registry participants to recycle into services.

Methods: We invited 3,510 past quitline participants back to quitline services, using messages consecutively delivered through Interactive Voice Response (IVR), followed by postcard and email reminders, 2 Short Messaging Services (SMS) texts, and a final cycle of IVR.

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Objective: This study evaluated whether tobacco quitline telephone coaches can be trained to counsel hazardous-drinking smokers to improve smoking cessation success and to limit or abstain from alcohol use.

Method: Smokers (N = 1,948) who called the New York State Smokers' Quitline and reported hazardous drinking (exceeding sex-specific weekly limits [14 drinks for men, 7 drinks for women] or meeting/exceeding daily drinking limits [5 drinks for men, 4 drinks for women] at least once in the past year) were randomized to receive either brief motivational counseling to limit or abstain from alcohol plus an alcohol reduction booklet added to standard care (Alcohol + Tobacco Counseling; ATC), or only smoking cessation counseling plus a smoking cessation booklet added to standard care (Tobacco-Only Counseling; TOC).

Results: Acceptable coach adherence was achieved.

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Underage drinkers typically have not developed regular patterns of drinking and so are likely to exhibit situational variation in alcohol intake, including binge drinking. Information about such variation is not well captured by quantity/frequency (QF) measures, which require that drinkers blend information over time to derive a representative estimate of "typical" drinking. The Timeline Followback (TLFB) method is designed to retrospectively capture situational variations in drinking during a specific period of time.

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The authors tested a restraint-based model that binge drinking is a function of being tempted to drink alcohol while also being concerned about avoiding excessive alcohol intake. Underage (18- to 20-year-olds, 204 men and 225 women) college student drinkers completed measures that assessed the attraction to alcohol (e.g.

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Objective: The Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI) is a measure of drinking restraint, the preoccupation with controlling alcohol intake. It contains two higher order factors pertaining to the temptation to drink and the restriction of alcohol intake. We tested the convergent and discriminant validity of the TRI in comparison to the Preoccupation with Alcohol Scale (PAS), the Reasons for Limiting Drinking Scale (RLD) and the Drinking-Related Locus of Control Scale (DRIE), each of which measures constructs analogous to the components of the TRI.

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