PUBLICATIONS

Kate Merrill, PhD and colleagues published preliminary outcomes from the IMARA South Africa pilot. The authors examined the preliminary effectiveness and implementation outcomes of Informed, Motivated, Aware, and Responsible Adolescents and Adults—South Africa (IMARA-SA), an evidence-based intervention for South African AGYW (15–19 years) and their female caregivers.  Primary outcomes were HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) uptake, STI incidence (gonorrhea, chlamydia), and pre-exposure [...]

Julie Bobitt, PhD and colleagues explored the use of cannabis among older Veterans. Their results showed older Veterans are using medical cannabis as a means of harm reduction as an adjunct or substitute for other medications and substances with limited guidance from their healthcare providers. Veterans also reported that there exists an inconsistency across the [...]

Ashley Kendall, PhD recently published an article, "Introducing a real-time method for identifying the predictors of non-compliance with event-based reporting of tobacco use in ecological momentary assessment" in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. This study introduced a real-time method for identifying person- and moment-level predictors of failing to self-initiate tobacco event reports during ecological momentary assessment [...]

CDIS Faculty Affiliate, Natasha Crooks, PhD and colleagues published a paper, "Barriers to PrEP uptake among Black female adolescents and emerging adults" in Preventative Medicine Reports. The purpose of this paper is to understand the characteristics of age, race, gender, history, and medical mistrust as barriers to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among Black female adolescents [...]

CDIS Faculty Affiliate, Angela Kong, PhD, MPH, RDN and colleagues published the "Facilitators and Barriers to Implementation and Sustainability of Nutrition and Physical Activity Interventions in Early Childcare Settings: a Systematic Review" in Prevention Science. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize existing research on facilitators and barriers to implementation and sustainability of nutrition [...]

Ashley Kendall, PhD has received funding from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health to conduct a Feasibility Trial of a Mindfulness-based mHealth Intervention to Mitigate the Effects of Chronic Workplace Stress among Juvenile Justice Officers. Juvenile justice officers (JJOs) face high chronic workplace stress. This stress is implicated in a constellation of adverse [...]

CDIS faculty, Monte Staton, PhD, CDIS faculty affiliate, Dennis Watson, PhD, and UIC Mile Square physician, Nicole Gastala, MD published their work on emergency department-based interventions for engaging patients presenting with opioid use disorder. Their study focused on addressing gaps in knowledge regarding implementation of emergency department-based peer support services in rural areas by comparing [...]

Geri Donenberg, PhD, Kate Merrill, PhD and colleagues detail a rigorous, 2-year process to harmonize measures across the Prevention And Treatment through a Comprehensive Care Continuum for HIV-affected Adolescents in Resource Constrained Settings (PATC3H) consortium, consisting of eight federally-funded studies. They created a repository of measured constructs from each study, classified and selected constructs for [...]

CDIS Faculty Affiliate, Andrea Pappalardo, MD and colleagues published findings on the self-efficacy among caregivers of children with food allergies. The study explored caregiver perceptions of how they cope and handle food allergy related events, as well as caregiver quality of life. In a diverse cohort of 365 caregivers, researchers found that greater self-efficacy was [...]

Monte Staton, PhD and colleagues explored the need for complementary qualitative research aimed at identifying how people with opioid use disorder (OUD) are understanding, experiencing, and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. This study looked at semi-structured qualitative interviews with 25 individuals in Chicago, the majority of which had received methadone treatment during the pandemic. Thematic inductive [...]

CDIS Faculty Affiliate, Natasha Crooks, PhD, RN, and colleagues explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black girls' physical, psychological, and sexual development. Utilizing the social-ecological model findings revealed themes related to the individual-, interpersonal-, institutional-, and community-level changes that Black girls experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Black adolescent girls need opportunities to discuss [...]