New Studies

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

1. Comparing Three Ways to Help Adults Quit Smoking. Black Americans in Wisconsin and across the United States continue to face significant smoking-related health inequities that are exacerbated by menthol tobacco use and tobacco industry targeting. This study will examine the effects of three treatment packages for Black adults who want to quit smoking as part of a five-state study (in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Virginia, and Wisconsin). The 1500 participants will be randomized to one of the three treatment packages: Standard, Intensive, or Intensive Incentivized Package. The Standard Package will provide 4 counseling sessions and 2 weeks of nicotine patches, similar to a typical state-run quitline. The Intensive Package will provide 8 weeks of nicotine patches, 8 culturally specific counseling sessions (participants can choose whether to have in-person group counseling or individual phone counseling), and access to the Pathways to Freedom video (a video designed to help Black adults quit smoking) on the study website. The Intensive Incentivized Package will be the same as the Intensive Package and will also provide up to $50 in incentives for participants to attend counseling sessions. These three treatment packages were selected because the individual components have been shown to be effective among Black adults trying to quit smoking and because the study’s Community Advisory Board (CAB), with feedback from focus groups of Black adults who smoke, deemed them to be acceptable and feasible. The CAB—based in Milwaukee, WI, made up of Black adults with lived experience smoking and/or public health professionals and the Director of Wisconsin’s Commercial Tobacco Prevention and Treatment Program, came together with UW-CTRI to identify treatments that might work best for Black adults who smoke. The goal of this research is to determine whether the culturally specific packages being tested in this study will increase quit rates relative to the standard evidence-based package. Importantly, these treatments will not be provided in clinical settings but in the participants’ everyday lives and settings. The study will also investigate the best ways to engage Black adults in these low-barrier treatments. June 2025-June 2029. Total budget over five years of $10 million. Funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Drs. Megan Piper and Hasmeena Kathuria, PIs.
2. Options 2 Study. (A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Nicotine Pouches for Cigarette Substitution: A Question of Public Health) UW-CTRI will test whether nicotine pouches can replace smoking among participants in a randomized comparative effectiveness study. Nicotine pouches—microfiber sachets containing powered nicotine but no tobacco leaf—are a new class of oral tobacco products rapidly growing in popularity. One popular brand is known as Zyn. However, we currently know very little about how readily people who smoke will adopt nicotine pouches, how effectively pouches can substitute for cigarettes when participants are trying to avoid smoking, the importance of nicotine dose in effective cigarette substitution, and the mechanisms that may promote or hinder product transition. To address these key gaps, researchers will enroll 300 adults who smoke daily and are not planning to quit in the next 30 days. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four product conditions: 1) 3-mg nicotine pouches; 2) 6-mg nicotine pouches; 3) nicotine mini-lozenges (2- or 4-mg); or 4) no study product. Participants receiving a study product (nicotine pouches or nicotine mini lozenges) will be asked to use them for four weeks, an initial experimentation week, and then for a three-week switching trial where they will be asked not to smoke their usual cigarettes and instructed instead to use their study product (if assigned one). Before and after the switching trial, participants will come to the clinic following overnight abstinence and will use their assigned product (if any) during a 30-minute sampling test to assess the duration of product use, subjective evaluations of study products, and suppression of craving and withdrawal symptoms under controlled conditions. During the four weeks of the study, participants will use a smartphone app to record, in real-time, each time they use cigarettes or a study product. For a random daily subset of use events, participants will answer additional questions about the context of their use (e.g., affect, any restrictions on smoking) and potential mechanisms driving use (e.g., withdrawal alleviation, satisfaction). September 2024-August 2029. Total budget over five years of $3.8 million. R01 Funded by the National Cancer Institute, NIH. Drs. Tom Piasecki and Megan Piper, MPIs.
3. Avenues Study. (Dual Use Cessation: A MOST screening trial to identify effective interventions for people who smoke and vape)  For people who both smoke and vape, there will be new paths to help them address their relationship with nicotine. The goal of the research is to identify the most effective ways to help people who both smoke and vape to quit smoking. Researchers will recruit 500 people who both smoke and vape. Participants will be randomized to one of two levels of each treatment factor: Medications—participants will get either varenicline or nicotine patch. Counseling approach—participants will either be encouraged to just quit smoking (and keep vaping) or to quit both smoking and vaping. Counseling intensity—participants will get either one coaching session or four sessions. Participants can earn up to $445 by completing the year-long study. Participants will use smartphones to share information with researchers two weeks before and after their quit dates. Participants will record smoking, vaping, medication use, craving levels, self-efficacy and other insights every evening. To date, no published studies have identified effective ways to help people who both smoke and vape to quit smoking. May 2024-May 2029. Total budget over five years of $4.3 million. R01 funded by the National Cancer Institute, NIH. Megan Piper and Dr. Tim Baker, MPIs.
4. Helping Young People Quit Vaping. (Addressing the Vaping Epidemic in Adolescents and Young Adults: Advancing our Understanding of Cessation Treatment and Engagement) More than 1.4 million adolescents and 4.7 million young adults in the United States report vaping, according to FDA and CDC’s National Youth Tobacco Survey. The majority never smoked cigarettes. The goal of this K08 training grant is to improve our understanding of how to engage adolescents and young adults in vaping cessation treatment and ultimately discover how best to help them to quit vaping. Dr. Williams and his colleagues will examine youth and young adult perspectives on quit-vaping interventions such as This is Quitting. Williams plans to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of two enhancements to This is Quitting—financial incentives and FDA-approved medications. In addition, Williams will use data from the PATH Study to better identify predictors of quit attempts as well as success. April 2024-April 2029. Total budget over five years of $967,000. K08 Funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH. Dr. Brian Williams, PI.
5. Vape Check. (The Longitudinal Effects of E-cigarette Use on Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Health Study), This award continues a long-standing successful research collaboration between Drs. Jim Stein and Tim Baker andwill examine the long-term effects of vaping on heart and lung health.  Participants will receive up to $675 for completing the 3-year study. They’ll also receive individualized test results and updates on their health. Although prior studies have examined some of the physical effects of vaping, virtually all of these have examined very short-term or cross-sectional effects. In contrast, Vape Check will follows people who vape over multiple years. Vape Check will help to set the record straight regarding the health effects of vaping. September 2024-September 2029. Total budget over five years of $5.7 million. R01 Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes. Drs. Tim Baker andJames Stein, MPIs.
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   Genes, Neighborhoods, and Alcohol Misuse from Adolescence to Mid-adulthood in the Add Health Study. The project will involve secondary analyses of data from the landmark National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a study that has prospectively followed 20,745 adolescents since 1994-95.  The aim is to gain a better understanding of the link between the neighborhood in which one lives (e.g. whether one lives in a rural or urban community, in an area that is more or less disadvantaged) and alcohol involvement over the life course. The results of this study might support the development of neighborhood-level preventive and treatment interventions and might also suggest who would be especially aided by such interventions.
   September 2024-September 2028. Total budget over three years of $944,664. R01 Funded by NIAAA, Dr. Wendy Slutske, PI.

7. Salvation Army Study. UW-CTRI will partner with the Salvation Army of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan on a new $6 million grant to evaluate sustainable strategies Salvation Army staff can use to connect their adult participants who use tobacco with the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line for free tobacco treatment. Wisconsin Salvation Army social service leaders, staff, and participants will play leading roles in planning, monitoring, and adapting Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line connection implementation strategies so they fit well in the usual context of Salvation Army services. Specifically, they will adapt two promising strategies supported by preliminary research. One promising strategy that will be evaluated in this project is an enhanced model of support for Salvation Army implementation teams. This will be compared against the usual UW-CTRI regional outreach support model in different Salvation Army service centers. The second strategy to be tested is focused on giving participants an incentive to talk with a Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line coach before they leave the Salvation Army. Salvation Army staff will develop an incentive strategy that they can sustain long-term, such as extra food pantry access, to promote participant connections with Quit Line treatment. These incentives are designed to give participants who want to quit using tobacco someday a reason to act on that desire today, and to give staff more confidence that they can interest participants in talking with the Quit Line. This application represents our commitment at UW-CTRI to address socioeconomic disparities in tobacco use and access to tobacco treatment through partnerships with community service, healthcare, and other organizations. September 2024-September 2030. Total budget over six years of $6.1 million if fully implemented. UG3/UH3 Funded by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Danielle McCarthy, PI.
8. Genes, Neighborhoods, and Alcohol Misuse from Adolescence to Mid-adulthood in the Add Health Study. The project will involve secondary analyses of data from the landmark National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a study that has prospectively followed 20,745 adolescents since 1994-95.  The aim is to gain a better understanding of the link between the neighborhood in which one lives (e.g. whether one lives in a rural or urban community, in an area that is more or less disadvantaged) and alcohol involvement over the life course. The results of this study might support the development of neighborhood-level preventive and treatment interventions and might also suggest who would be especially aided by such interventions.
   September 2024-September 2028. Total budget over three years of $944,664. R01 Funded by NIAAA, Dr. Wendy Slutske, PI.