Publications by authors named "Jeffrey Stein"

Background: Substance use disorder (SUD) and pain are highly comorbid conditions and several pain indices (e.g., pain intensity) are associated with an increased risk of relapse.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated how administrative burdens, termed "sludge," affect colorectal cancer (CRC) screening experiences among patients in the Southeastern U.S.
  • Using a mixed methods design, researchers combined patient interviews and surveys to explore perceptions of sludge and its impact on screening delays and health system distrust.
  • Findings revealed that many patients experienced poor screening processes, with significant associations between higher sludge levels and delays or forgoing of screenings, highlighting issues like long wait times and complex communication.
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Introduction: Vascular smooth muscle cells are important in intimal hyperplasia. Thrombospondin-1 is a matricellular protein involved in the vascular injury response. Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs that have beneficial cardiovascular effects.

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Significance: Tobacco product design features, including flavors and cigarette filter ventilation, are subject to regulation. This study examined the effects of cigarette and e-cigarette flavors on demand and substitution by preferred cigarette flavor and ventilation in the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (ETM).

Methods: In a mixed between-group (usual cigarette flavor and ventilation)/within-subject design (policy conditions), individuals who use tobacco (n=176 cigarette (60.

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Field-collected specimens were used to obtain nine high-quality genome assemblies from a total of 10 insect species native to prairies and savannas of central Illinois (USA): Mellilla xanthometata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), Stenolophus ochropezus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), Forcipata loca (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), Coelinius sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), Thaumatomyia glabra (Diptera: Chloropidae), Brachynemurus abdominalus (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae), Catonia carolina (Hemiptera: Achilidae), Oncometopia orbona (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), Flexamia atlantica (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) and Stictocephala bisonia (Hemiptera: Membracidae). Sequencing library preparation from single specimens was successful despite extremely small DNA yields (<0.

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Introduction: Cigarette smoking accounts for >30% of the socioeconomic gap in life expectancy. Flavored restrictions claim to promote equity; however, no previous studies have compared the effect of cigarette and e-cigarette flavor restrictions among individuals who smoke with lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES).

Aims And Methods: In a between-group within-subject design, individuals with lower (n = 155) and higher (n = 125) SES completed hypothetical purchasing trials in the experimental tobacco marketplace (ETM).

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Background: Tobacco regulations may increase demand for illegal cigarettes. We use the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace to estimate the impact of banning menthol cigarettes (Experiment 1) and decreasing allowable cigarette filter ventilation levels (Experiment 2).

Methods: Crowdsourced participants were randomized into one of four groups (2×2 factorial design).

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Prior studies suggest that scarcity increases delay discounting (devaluation of delayed outcomes) and disturbs other decision-making processes. Evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on delay discounting is mixed. Also, no study has examined the effect of COVID-19-related scarcity on probability discounting (devaluation of probabilistic outcomes).

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Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) reduces delay discounting and may have the potential as a clinical tool to increase the likelihood of health-promoting behaviors. However, evaluations of EFT in clinical settings require control conditions that match the effort and frequency of cue generation, as well as participants' expectations of improvement. The Health Information Thinking (HIT) control addresses these issues, but how this control affects delay discounting in individuals with diabetes and obesity when utilizing diabetes-management specific health-information vignettes is unknown.

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Objectives: "Sludge," or the frictions or administrative burdens that make it difficult for people to attain what they want or need, is an unexplored health care delivery factor that may contribute to deficiencies in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We piloted a method to identify and quantify sludge in a southeastern US health system's delivery of CRC screening services.

Study Design: Mixed methods sludge audit.

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Objectives: Individuals in recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD) are vulnerable to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent findings suggest increased relapse risk and overdose linked to COVID-19-related stressors. We aimed to identify individual-level factors associated with COVID-19-related impacts on recovery.

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Hypothetical purchase tasks (HPTs) are effective tools for evaluating participants' demand for substances. The present study evaluated the effect of task presentation on producing unsystematic data and purchasing behavior in a sample of individuals who smoke cigarettes. Participants ( = 365) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned to complete two of three HPT presentations: List (prices on one page in an increasing order), (one price per page in an increasing order), or (one price per page in a random order).

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Introduction: Cigarette filter ventilation and light descriptors are associated with lowered perceptions of risk and smoking more cigarettes per day (CPD). This study examined the relationship between usual cigarette ventilation, perception, and CPD.

Methods: A crowdsourced sample (N = 995) of individuals who smoke higher-ventilated (=>20% ventilation) or lower-ventilated (=<10% ventilation) cigarettes identified their usual cigarette as "light" or "full flavor", and reported their average CPD.

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An app-based clinical trial enrolment process can contribute to duplicated records, carrying data management implications. Our objective was to identify duplicated records in real time in the Apple Heart Study (AHS). We leveraged personal identifiable information (PII) to develop a dissimilarity score (DS) using the Damerau-Levenshtein distance.

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Background And Aims: Limited information exists regarding individual subgroups of recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD) following treatment and how these subgroups may relate to recovery trajectories. We used multi-dimensional criteria to identify OUD recovery subgroups and longitudinal transitions across subgroups.

Design, Setting And Participants: In a national longitudinal observational study in the United States, individuals who previously participated in a clinical trial for subcutaneous buprenorphine injections for treatment of OUD were enrolled and followed for an average of 4.

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In recent years, episodic future thinking (EFT) has emerged as a promising behavioral intervention to reduce delay discounting or maladaptive health behaviors; however, considerable methodological heterogeneity in methods for eliciting engagement in EFT has been observed in prior research. In this narrative review, we briefly describe methods for generating EFT cues, the content of EFT cues, common control conditions for experiments utilizing EFT, and considerations for cue delivery and implementation. Where possible, we make suggestions for current best practices in each category while identifying gaps in knowledge and potential areas of future research.

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Significance: Restrictive e-cigarette policies may increase purchases from illegal sources. The Illegal Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (IETM) allows examination of how restrictions impact illegal purchases. We investigated (1) the effect of a vaping ban, total flavour vaping ban and partial flavour vaping ban on the probability of purchasing illegal vaping products among different regulatory environments (USA, Canada and England) and tobacco user types (cigarette smokers, dual users and e-cigarette users); and (2) the relation between ban endorsement and illegal purchases.

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Crowdsourcing platforms allow researchers to quickly recruit and collect behavioral economic measures in substance-using populations, such as cigarette smokers. Despite the broad utility and flexibility, data quality issues have been an object of concern. In two separate studies recruiting cigarette smokers, we sought to investigate the association between a practical quality control measure (accuracy on an instruction quiz), on internal consistency of number of cigarettes smoked per day and purchasing patterns of tobacco products in an experimental tobacco marketplace (ETM; Study 1), and in a cigarette purchase task (CPT; Study 2).

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Cigarette smokers show excessive delay discounting (devaluation of delayed rewards), which may contribute to tobacco use disorder. Episodic future thinking (EFT), or mental simulation of future events, has been shown to reduce both delay discounting and laboratory smoking behavior. Traditionally, EFT involves vividly imagining positive future events.

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The digital clinical trial is fast emerging as a pragmatic trial that can improve a trial's design including recruitment and retention, data collection and analytics. To that end, digital platforms such as electronic health records or wearable technologies that enable passive data collection can be leveraged, alleviating burden from the participant and study coordinator. However, there are challenges.

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Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) seriously impacts public health in the United States. However, few investigations of long-term outcomes following treatment with medication for OUD exist. Additionally, these studies have prioritized opioid use and treatment utilization outcomes, and a gap in knowledge regarding long-term, multidimensional trajectories of OUD recovery exists.

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Obesity in breast cancer (BC) survivors is associated with increased mortality. Delay discounting (DD) is a behavioral economic measure of how individuals value future outcomes. Higher DD correlates with obesity in the general population.

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Previous research with individuals with substance use disorder indicated that different narratives have different effects on one's behaviors and decision-making. One question that remains unanswered is whether simulating real-world consequences of illegal purchases using narratives would induce psychological distress levels as expected in real-world situations. The present experiment used a between-group design to study how different narratives regarding penalties impact smokers' affective state and more specifically, psychological distress.

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