Publications by authors named "Jessica Breland"

African American veterans who use tobacco use evidence-based tobacco-cessation treatment less than other racial/ethnic groups, contributing to higher tobacco-related treatment burden for them. This study aimed to assess barriers and facilitators African American patients face before engaging in Veterans Health Administration behavioral tobacco-cessation treatment services, as an initial step to identify new implementation strategies. African American veterans (N = 30) who use tobacco at a large Veterans Affairs Medical Center completed interviews about perceived barriers and facilitators to behavioral treatment, views on telehealth, and suggested care improvements.

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Objective: To illustrate the importance of a multidimensional view of disparities in quality of antidepressant medication management (AMM), as well as discriminating "within-facility" disparities from disparities that exist between facilities.

Data Sources And Study Setting: We used data from the Veterans Health Administration's (VA) Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) which contains clinical and administrative data from VA facilities nationally.

Study Design: CDW data were used to measure five indicators of AMM quality, including the HEDIS Effective Acute-Phase and Effective Continuation-Phase measures.

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Introduction: Over 40 % of United States Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care patients have obesity. Few patients use VHA's flagship weight management program, MOVE! and there is little information on other behavioral weight management program use.

Methods: The national United States cohort included over 1.

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Background: Non-Hispanic Black or African American (hereafter Black) veterans lose less weight than other users of the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) weight management program (MOVE!), despite higher enrollment.

Objective: To understand factors that affect weight loss disparities between Black veterans and other veterans.

Design: Qualitative study using Photovoice methods.

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Introduction: We tested the hypotheses that depression diagnoses influence racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes control and that mental health treatment moderates that relationship.

Research Design And Methods: We created a national cohort of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients with diabetes using administrative data (n=815 067). Cross-sectional linear mixed effects regression models tested the hypothesized indirect effect of depression on poor diabetes control (glycosylated hemoglobin >9%) and tested whether mental health treatment (visits or antidepressant prescriptions) moderated the effect of depression (α=0.

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Background: Almost 40% of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) users have obesity. VHA's national weight management program is associated with weight loss and improved health. However, while 94% of eligible VHA users are offered weight management programs, <8% use them.

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Despite proliferation of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments, African American adults still suffer higher rates of tobacco-related diseases than White adults. Although tobacco cessation treatment is efficacious, there is a need to reassess the efficacy of tobacco cessation treatment for African American adults. Previous reviews of tobacco cessation treatment studies conducted through 2007 among African American adults highlight the limited research in this area and inconsistent findings on treatment characteristics impacting efficacy.

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Background: Blended mHealth interventions (mHealth interventions including a facilitator) promote user engagement and increase effectiveness of health behavior change interventions. Little is known about how blended mHealth interventions are used outside the research context.

Methods: In the present work, we characterized patterns of app use among users of a blended mHealth intervention in real-world conditions.

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We used the Common Sense Model to understand weight management treatment representations of diverse patients, conducting semistructured interviews with 24 veterans with obesity, recruited from multiple U.S. Veterans Health Administration facilities.

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Background: The Common Sense Model provides a framework to understand health beliefs and behaviors. It includes illness representations comprised of five domains (identity, cause, consequences, timeline, and control/cure). While widely used, it is rarely applied to obesity, yet could explain self-management decisions and inform treatments.

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Introduction: In response to COVID-19, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) converted appropriate outpatient visits to virtual care, including MOVE! Weight Management Program for Veterans (MOVE!) visits. Before the pandemic, most veterans participated in MOVE! in person, with several telehealth modalities available. We sought to describe national trends in MOVE! participation during the pandemic (March 2020-January 2021) overall and by modality and to compare participation to prepandemic levels.

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Background: Mobile health (mHealth) interventions for weight management can result in weight loss outcomes comparable to in-person treatments. However, there is little information on implementing these treatments in real-world settings.

Objective: This work aimed to answer two implementation research questions related to mHealth for weight management: (1) what are barriers and facilitators to mHealth adoption (initial use) and engagement (continued use)? and (2) what are patient beliefs about the appropriateness (ie, perceived fit, relevance, or compatibility) of mHealth for weight management?

Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with patients with obesity at a single facility in an integrated health care system (the Veterans Health Administration).

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Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to maintaining interdisciplinary collaboration while transitioning care to telehealth environments. This paper describes how an intensive weight management clinic rapidly transitioned from in-person only to a telehealth environment.

Method: As a program evaluation project, changes to clinic procedures were tracked on a weekly basis.

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Behavioral medicine research and practice have not traditionally acknowledged the detrimental effects of anti-Black racism (and other forms of systemic oppression) on health, interventions, or research. This commentary describes four ways that behavioral medicine researchers and clinicians can address the past to envision the future of behavioral medicine to promote equitable health for all: 1) name anti-Black racism, 2) ensure interventions address structural inequities, 3) advocate for systemic change, and 4) change expectations for publications.

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Technology can improve implementation strategies' efficiency, simplifying progress tracking and removing distance-related barriers. However, incorporating technology is meaningful only if the resulting strategy is usable and useful. Hence, we must systematically assess technological strategies' usability and usefulness before employing them.

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Objective: In response to COVID-19, we conducted a rapid review of risk communication interventions to mitigate risk from viruses to determine if such interventions are efficacious.

Methods: We searched for risk communication interventions in four databases: Medline, PsycInfo, the ProQuest Coronavirus Research Database, and CENTRAL. The search produced 1572 articles.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess associations between BMI and severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes: hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality. A secondary aim was to investigate whether associations varied by age.

Methods: The cohort comprised patients in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) who tested positive for COVID-19 (N = 9,347).

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is disproportionally affecting racial and ethnic minorities. In the United States, data show African American, Hispanic, and Native American populations are overrepresented among COVID-19 cases and deaths. As we speed through the discovery and translation of approaches to fight COVID-19, these disparities are likely to increase.

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Objective: The objective was to compare differences in body mass index (BMI) calculated with self-reported versus clinically measured pre-conception data from women veterans in California.

Methods: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and California state birth certificate data were used to develop a cohort of women who gave birth from 2007-2012 and had VHA data available to calculate BMI ( = 1,326 mothers, 1,473 births). Weighted Kappa statistics assessed concordance between self-reported and measured BMI.

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Introduction: Individuals with obesity have higher rates of mental health disorders, both singly and in combination, than individuals of normal weight. Mental health disorders may negatively impact weight loss treatment outcomes; however, little is known about the mental health burden of individuals using weight loss programs. The current study identifies common mental health diagnostic profiles among participants of MOVE!-the Veterans Health Administration's behavioral weight loss program.

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This systematic review answered two questions among adults with chronic conditions: When included in the same statistical model, are Common Sense Model constructs and self-efficacy both associated with (1) self-management behaviors and (2) health outcomes? We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and included 29 articles. When included in the same statistical model, Common Sense Model constructs and self-efficacy were both correlated with outcomes. Self-efficacy was more consistently associated with self-management behaviors, and Common Sense Model constructs were more consistently associated with health outcomes.

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Objective: The goal was to examine psychiatric diagnosis rates among a national cohort of primary care patients with and without obesity.

Methods: The cohort was derived from national Veterans Health Administration data (women, N=342,262; men, N=4,524,787). Sex-stratified descriptive statistics characterized psychiatric diagnosis rates.

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Introduction: People who do not perceive themselves as overweight or obese are less likely to use weight loss treatments. However, little is known about weight perceptions and their association with weight loss attempts among people who have served in the military. They represent a special population with regard to weight perceptions as military personnel must meet strict weight standards to remain in military service.

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