Publications by authors named "Sandra Japuntich"

Patients are not always aware of listing criteria and offer acceptance across transplant programs. Factors such as age and body mass index can impact access to transplants as centers have different candidate criteria. Therefore, we created a transplant center search tool (transplantcentersearch.

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Background: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities experience higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and related chronic conditions compared to White communities due to disparities in tobacco exposure. Smoking can be effectively treated but evidence-based treatments are less likely to be offered to or used by BIPOC patients. We present the study protocol of the Smoking Cessation Outreach for Racial Equity (SCORE) trial that tests the effect of adding longitudinal care coordination to current standard of care for smoking cessation to promote health equity among BIPOC patients.

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Background: Cigarette smoking has major detrimental effects on oral health. Tobacco interventions in dental settings are effective, but rarely delivered. The American Dental Hygienists Association recommends that oral health providers: Ask patients about tobacco use, Advise quitting tobacco use, and Refer to state quitlines (Ask-Advise-Refer; AAR).

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Background: Annual lung cancer screening (LCS) with low dose CT reduces lung cancer mortality. LCS is underutilized. Black people who smoke tobacco have high risk of lung cancer but are less likely to be screened than are White people.

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Article Synopsis
  • Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a process that helps filter out weak sensory stimuli, and previous research indicates that smoking withdrawal can negatively affect this filtering, especially in individuals with mental health issues.
  • In a study involving trauma-exposed individuals, researchers assessed how changes in PPI during smoking cessation corresponded to smoking abstinence, finding that those who maintained abstinence showed higher PPI levels.
  • The results suggest that improving PPI during the early stages of quitting smoking could support better cessation outcomes for people with a history of trauma, particularly those at greater risk for tobacco addiction.
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Background: Approximately 400,000 people who smoke cigarettes survive Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS; unstable angina, ST and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction) each year in the US. Continued smoking following ACS is an independent predictor of mortality. Depressed mood post-ACS is also predictive of mortality, and smokers with depressed mood are less likely to abstain from smoking following an ACS.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many pregnant women want to quit smoking, but most relapse within a year after giving birth, and research on preventing this relapse faces recruitment challenges.
  • Interviews with 22 pregnant women revealed that while they recognize the risks of smoking and express a desire to quit, there's low usage of proven methods and hesitance towards medications, especially among those intending to breastfeed.
  • Women identified financial incentives and flexible research structures as helpful, but overall concerns about medication safety and a belief that they would not relapse postpartum limited their willingness to participate in studies.
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Tobacco use is rarely addressed in community mental healthcare settings, despite its high prevalence among people with serious mental illness. The aim of the current study was to gather stakeholder feedback regarding the feasibility of chronic care management strategies for tobacco dependence in community mental health centers (CMHCs). Chronic care strategies evaluated included the 5 As (Ask about tobacco use, Advise users of tobacco to quit, Assess interest in cessation, Assist with cessation, and Arrange for follow-up) and proactive telephone outreach (reaching out to all users of tobacco to offer connection to tobacco cessation treatment).

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Background: E-cigarette use is common among adolescents and young adults, yet little is known about e-cigarette cessation among this group. The current study assessed e-cigarette cessation attempts, interest in e-cigarette cessation, and methods of e-cigarette cessation most favored by young e-cigarette users.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered Facebook and Instagram between February and April 2019 to enroll current, regular e-cigarette using adolescents and young adults who reported non-regular use of other tobacco products.

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Contingency management is an effective treatment for cigarette smoking cessation but feasibility and acceptability concerns have been barriers to implementation. We conducted a pilot test of QuitBet, a commercial, digital (smartphone) social game for smoking cessation during which participants earned financial incentives for abstinence. QuitBet included a social feed for posting messages and entirely participant-funded incentives in the form of a deposit contract (the "bet").

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Cigarette smoking among postpartum women remains a significant public health problem despite known health risks to women and their newborns. It is estimated that over 50% of women quit smoking during pregnancy but 90% relapse by one year. Safe and effective postpartum relapse prevention strategies are urgently needed.

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Article Synopsis
  • Smoking rates among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are significantly higher than the general population, yet smoking cessation is often overlooked in mental health treatment settings.
  • This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a chronic care model for tobacco cessation, which involved counseling and nicotine replacement over 8 weeks, compared to a control group receiving brief education and referral to quit resources.
  • Results showed successful recruitment and high engagement in the intervention, with some indications that the intervention group had better abstinence rates, although differences were not statistically significant.
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Background: Adults experiencing homelessness have higher rates of disease and premature morbidity compared to the general population. Tobacco use is a primary contributing factor to these disparities; however, less is known regarding e-cigarette use patterns among adults experiencing homelessness and whether e-cigarettes are used in a manner that is narrowing or widening health disparities. This study aimed to describe the 1) prevalence and trends in e-cigarette use, 2) correlates of e-cigarettes use, and 3) rates of chronic health conditions by product use pattern in a community-based sample of adults experiencing homelessness.

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Objective: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) smoke at higher rates compared to the general population and experience significant barriers to initiating cessation treatment. Proactive outreach addresses these barriers by directly engaging with smokers and facilitating access to treatment. The objective of the present study was to evaluate a proactive outreach intervention for increasing rates of treatment utilization and abstinence among veteran smokers with and without PTSD.

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Research is needed to inform effective regulatory policy that can help curb electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among youth. However, several challenges interfere with studying e-cigarette use among youth. Social media may provide an outlet to overcome these challenges.

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Introduction: People with serious mental illness (SMI) have a high smoking prevalence and low quit rates. Few cessation treatments are tested in smokers with SMI. Mental health (MH) providers are reluctant to address smoking.

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Tobacco use is rarely addressed in community mental healthcare despite high patient smoking prevalence. Community mental health centers have systems in place that could be used to comprehensively address tobacco use. This study tested feasibility of, satisfaction with, and safety of proactive tobacco treatment (tobacco outreach to offer connection to tobacco cessation treatment).

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Smokers with serious mental illness (SMI) face individual, interpersonal, and healthcare provider barriers to cessation treatment utilization and smoking abstinence. Proactive outreach strategies are designed to address these barriers by promoting heightened contact with smokers and facilitating access to evidence-based treatments. The present study examined the effect of proactive outreach among smokers with SMI (n = 939) who were enrolled in the publicly subsidized Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) and compared this effect to that observed among MHCP smokers without SMI (n = 1382).

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Introduction: Trauma-exposed individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to smoke and less successful in quit attempts than individuals without psychopathology. Contingency management (CM) techniques (i.e.

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Background/purpose: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Black Americans have the highest rate of lung cancer mortality, due to being diagnosed at later stage. Lung Cancer Screening (LCS) facilitates earlier detection and has been associated with a reduction in cancer death.

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Article Synopsis
  • Poor mental health is linked to increased usage of various tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco, among US adults.
  • People with fair/poor self-perceived mental health (SPMH) are more likely to cite affordability and appealing advertising as motives for using certain tobacco products.
  • The study underscores the need for ongoing monitoring of tobacco use trends, particularly in populations that may be more vulnerable due to mental health issues.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess how smoking status and duration of smoking cessation affect long-term survival in patients diagnosed with lung cancer (LC) and colorectal cancer (CRC).
  • Researchers analyzed data from 5,575 patients to categorize them as never-smokers, recent quitters, or current smokers, and found that current smokers had a higher risk of mortality compared to never-smokers.
  • The findings indicate that while current smoking worsens survival rates for LC and CRC patients, quitting smoking around the time of diagnosis didn’t significantly improve survival outcomes.
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Objectives: Substance use may influence study results in human subjects research. This study aims to report the concordance between self-report and biochemical assessments of substance use and test the effect of methods to reduce false reports of abstinence in trauma-exposed women participating in a research study.

Methods: In this pilot study, substance use was assessed during telephone prescreening and via self-report and biochemical verification (i.

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Rationale: Adults with chronic lower respiratory disease differ in their barriers to smoking cessation but also suffer from tobacco-related health concerns, which may motivate quit attempts. Few studies have examined differences in tobacco treatment response between smokers with and without chronic lower respiratory disease.

Objective: We examined the effectiveness of a proactive outreach program for cessation among smokers with and without chronic lower respiratory disease.

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