New Studies

UW-CTRI has four new studies and 9 other active studies. Here are the new studies:

1. Motivating Change in Aging Smokers. This K23 award funds a research study to increase smoking cessation in adults age 50 and older. While these adults smoke at lower rates (8.2%) than the general population (13%), their cessation rates are also lower because they are less likely to be advised to quit or offered help by providers. A common misperception is that mature adults can’t or won’t quit and, if they do, they won’t benefit from it. But the research reflects the contrary. When they do try to quit, they’re generally more successful than younger people, especially when they use evidenced-based treatments (which double their success). The study will run qualitative interviews to look at what might motivate older adults to quit. One potential incentive is pointing out that quitting smoking can reduce risk for cognitive decline—commonly cited as the greatest fear among mature adults, but one yet to be used for motivation with smoking cessation. UW-CTRI will recruit participants via signs, posters, calls from each person’s clinic, and a letter to motivate and offer treatment. Researchers will compare that to a clinic with no message and a clinic with a standard motivational method. The group plans to run the study at three clinics in the same health system. They’ll be tuned into any behavioral health symptoms and the socioeconomic status of the participants to better analyze and interpret results. Drs. Megan Piper, Carey Gleason, Jane Mahoney, and Jessica Cook are serving as co-mentors to Principal Investigator Dr. Adrienne Johnson. May 2021-Feb 2026, $782,000. Funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Adrienne Johnson, PI.

2. Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Grant. This project aims to develop a tailored intervention for African Americans age 50 and older to motivate them to quit smoking. African Americans are disproportionately more likely than white adults to develop dementia and suffer health effects of smoking. For this project, UW-CTRI Researcher Dr. Adrienne Johnson is collaborating with Lorraine Lathen, Director of the Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network. April 2021-March 2023, $150,000. Funded by the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center with funds from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Adrienne Johnson, Dr. Megan Piper, Dr. Carey Gleason, PIs.

3. Integrating Tobacco Policy and Treatment into the Wisconsin Behavioral Health Treatment System. This grant, led by Dr. Bruce Christiansen, has three parts:
4. Helping “Hubs” work with their “Spokes” to address tobacco use. The Department of Health Services will be launching a pilot program this summer that promises to redesign the delivery of addiction services in Wisconsin. This new “Hub and Spoke” model will deliver comprehensive, patient-centric services that address all the physical and mental health needs of people in treatment for addictions through a central Hub that coordinates care across its many Spokes. Due to prior work by UW-CTRI and the state, each Hub is required by contract to treat tobacco dependence treatment through its Spokes. Wisconsin will have three Hubs. UW-CTRI has secured matching funding from the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Control Program (TPCP) to provide each of two of the HUBs with a $30,000 award for adopting a tobacco-free policy and to implement the treatment of tobacco dependence. This project permits funding for the third Hub, and enables UW-CTRI to provide technical assistance and support to all three Hubs and their Spokes. In this project, each Hub will provide mini-grants to its spokes as an incentive to address both tobacco policy and treatment. The UW-CTRI outreach staff will then work with and provide technical assistance to each awardee (Spoke) as they implement their mini-grant. In addition to a final report and financial information, the capstone project will be a webinar at which each spoke and new tobacco champion will discuss their project.
5. Survey of Wisconsin addiction programs to assess current tobacco policy and efforts to treat tobacco dependence. The state department of health and UW-CTRI are currently working together in a CDC-sponsored Community of Practice (COP) project to address tobacco in behavioral health. One task of this partnership is to conduct a survey of Wisconsin addiction treatment programs to establish their current tobacco policy and current practices to treat tobacco dependence. This will inform both efforts to reach the new tobacco requirements in the Chapter 75 administrative code that establishes standards for addiction treatment programs as well as the work within the new Hub and Spoke model. UW-CTRI will develop the needed survey, implement the survey electronically, analyze the data, provide a thank-you gift card to each survey respondent, and prepare a report that summarizes the results.
6. Mini-grants. In this project, we will select 10 behavioral health treatment programs to receive Tobacco Integration Award. UW-CTRI will provide each grantee with $5,000 as well as guidance and technical assistance. This project will also require a brief report and webinar at the end of the project to disseminate lessons learned statewide.

April 2021-September 2021, $163,865. Funded by the Wisconsin Division of Care and Treatment and Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, part of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Dr. Bruce Christiansen, PI. . Apr 2021-Sept 2021, $164,000.

4. Withdraw From Tobacco. This study will recruit 200 people to quit without medication for the first week. All participants then get eight weeks of combination nicotine-replacement medication (nicotine patch and mini lozenge). Study staff will provide coaching to help participants quit smoking and confirm their smoking status 9 weeks after the quit date. One of the important products of our research at UW-CTRI is the Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scale (WSWS). The Withdraw From Tobacco study, led by Dr. Tim Baker and Dr. Jesse Kaye, will be critical to improving the scale, making it congruent with recent research on the nature of smoking withdrawal. June 2021-Dec 2022, $1.2 Million. Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Drs. Timothy Baker and Jesse Kaye, PIs.