Effects of the Communities That HEAL intervention on initiation, retention, and linkage to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD): A cluster randomized wait-list controlled trial.

Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) can reduce opioid use and overdose deaths. This study examined whether the Communities That HEAL (CTH) intervention increased MOUD initiation, retention, and linkage. The HEALing Communities Study was a multi-site, 2-arm, parallel, community-level, cluster-randomized, unblinded, wait-list controlled trial conducted in 67 communities (n = 34 intervention, n = 33 control).

Long-COVID symptom burden and the experience of adversity: the importance of response-shift effects over 3 years of the pandemic.

Background/objectives: Long COVID is a long-term legacy of the global pandemic. This study aimed to illuminate how Long COVID impacts individuals, and how response-shift effects influence Long COVID's impact. Methodologically, it expands the application of longitudinal statistical methods to test a more dynamic investigation of psychosocial factors in health over time.

Observational survey of financial difficulties among patients with multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia treated at US community oncology clinics (Alliance A231602CD).

Objectives: To estimate the proportion and correlates of self-reported financial difficulty among patients with multiple myeloma (MM) or chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Setting: Sixty-six US community and minority oncology practices affiliated with the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Programme (NCORP).

Participants: A total of 521 patients (≥18 years) with MM or CLL consented and 416 responded to a survey (completion rate=79.

System dynamics modeling to inform implementation of evidence-based prevention of opioid overdose and fatality: A state-level model from the New York HEALing Communities Study.

Background: As part of the New York HEALing Communities Study, we modeled the opioid epidemic in New York State (NYS) to help coalition members understand short- and long-term capacity-building needs and trade-offs in choosing the optimal mix of harm reduction, treatment, and prevention strategies.

Methods: We built and validated a system dynamics simulation model of the interdependent effects of exposure to opioids, opioid supply and overdose risk, community awareness of overdose risk, naloxone supply and use, and treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). We simulated overdose and fatality rates, OUD prevalence, and related measures from 2012 to 2032 for the NYS population aged ≥12 and tested policy scenarios for reducing future overdose deaths.

Opioid-use disorder and reported pain after spine surgery: Risk-group patterns in cognitive-appraisal processes in a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: As spinal disorders cause significant pain over an extended period, prolonged opioid use could lead to an increased risk of opioid-use disorder (OUD) over recovery. This study examined cognitive-appraisal processes as potential moderators of OUD-risk, after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors.

Methods: This longitudinal cohort study included 342 adults undergoing surgical treatment for a back/leg problem, neck/arm/shoulder problem, or spinal deformity at a United States academic medical center.

Towards a learning healthcare community in the Bronx: evaluating the Bridging Research, Accurate Information and Dialogue (BRAID) model.

Background: Learning healthcare communities (LHCCs) have been proposed as a next-generation evolution of learning health systems that can advance health equity; however, a practical mechanism for enabling the active and continuous community engagement required for one has not yet been described in the literature. Recognizing that community-based participatory research (CBPR) could potentially meet this need, a team at the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine designed a novel evidence-based CBPR model - Bridging Research, Accurate Information and Dialogue (BRAID) - that initiates meaningful, longitudinal dialogues to foster bidirectional trust between researchers, clinicians, scientists and communities.

Methods: A mixed-methods cohort study of two BRAID cohorts was conducted between 2022 and 2023.

Research protocol for bridging research, accurate information and dialogue (BRAID)-clinical trials: a mixed-methods study of a community-based intervention to improve trust and diversify participation in clinical trials.

Cultural beliefs, personal experiences, and historic abuses within the healthcare system-rooted in structural racism-all contribute to community distrust in science and medicine. This lack of trust, particularly within underserved communities, contributes to decreased participation in clinical trials and a lack of representation in the data. Open dialogue about community concerns and experiences related to research participation and medical care processes can help build trust and change attitudes and behaviors that affect community health.

The faces of Long-COVID: interplay of symptom burden with socioeconomic, behavioral and healthcare factors.

Aims: The long-term effects of COVID-19 (Long COVID) include 19 symptoms ranging from mild to debilitating. We examined multidimensional correlates of Long COVID symptom burden.

Methods: This study focused on participants who reported having had COVID in Spring 2023 (n = 656; 85% female, mean age = 55, 59% college).

Emerging priorities and concerns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: qualitative and quantitative findings from a United States national survey.

Purpose: The present study examines how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience affected values and priorities.

Methods: This cross-sectional study collected data between January and April 2023, from 1,197 individuals who are chronically ill or part of a general population sample. Using open-ended prompts and closed-ended questions, we investigated individuals' perceptions about COVID-19-induced changes in what quality of life means to them, what and who are important, life focus, and changes in norms and stressors.

Functional Status Correlates of Change and Stability in Appraisal after Spine Surgery: Earlier versus Later Effects.

Spine surgery generally yields a notable improvement in patients' health state, and there is variability in measured patient outcomes after spine surgery. The present work aimed to describe for clinicians how appraisal underlies their patients' experience of healthcare interventions. This prospective longitudinal cohort study (n = 156) included adults undergoing spine surgery for degenerative spinal conditions.

Mental health after lumbar spine surgery: cognitive appraisal processes and outcome in a longitudinal cohort study.

Background Context: A not uncommon finding following spine surgery is that many patients do not achieve mental health improvement up to population norms for their age cohort, despite improvement in pain and functioning.

Purpose: This study examined how patients who were categorized as depressed versus not depressed think about health-related quality of life as assessed by cognitive-appraisal processes. It examined cross-sectional and longitudinal differences over 12 months postsurgery.

Reserve-building as a buffer for depression among individuals living with disability: a longitudinal study of current activities related to brain health.

Aims: This study examined whether reserve-building activities are associated with attenuated reported depression among people who were disabled from work due to a medical condition as compared to employed, retired, and unemployed participants.

Methods: This secondary analysis included 771 individuals who provided data at three time points: baseline (late Spring 2020), follow-up 1 (Spring 2021), and follow-up 2 (Fall 2021). The DeltaQuest Reserve-Building Measure assessed current activities related to brain health.

Individual differences in the long-term impact of the pandemic: moderators of COVID-related hardship, worry, and social support.

Purpose: Understanding people's response to the pandemic needs to consider individual differences in priorities and concerns. The present study sought to understand how individual differences in cognitive-appraisal processes might moderate the impact of three COVID-specific factors-hardship, worry, and social support-on reported depression.

Methods: This longitudinal study of the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included 771 people with data at three timepoints over 15.

Depression trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic: a secondary analysis of the impact of cognitive-appraisal processes.

Purpose: This study characterized depression trajectories during the COVID pandemic and investigated how appraisal and changes in appraisal over time related to these depression trajectories.

Methods: This longitudinal study of the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included 771 people with data at three timepoints over 15.5 months.

Impact of comorbidities on people with and without cancer early in the COVID-19 pandemic: An observational study.

Background: The present study sought to investigate how comorbidity burden influences cancer survivors' quality of life (QoL) and the challenges/adaptations during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) pandemic, and to examine how appraisal processes are related to this impact.

Methods: This cross-sectional study, administered in spring/summer 2020, compared cancer survivors to a general-population comparison sample. QoL was assessed with standardized tools.

Cancer beliefs and screening behaviors: The impact of neighborhood and other social determinants of health.

Background: Beliefs about cancer influence breast and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening behavior. Screening rates for these cancers differ in the contiguous neighborhoods of East Harlem (EH), Central Harlem (CH), and the Upper East Side (UES), which have distinct socio-demographic compositions. We assessed the belief-screening behavior relationship in these neighborhoods.

Health-related Quality of Life After Robotic-assisted vs Open Radical Cystectomy: Analysis of a Randomized Trial.

Purpose: We compare health-related quality of life using a broad range of validated measures in patients randomized to robotic-assisted radical cystectomy vs open radical cystectomy.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients that had enrolled in both a randomized controlled trial comparing robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy vs open radical cystectomy and a separate prospective study of health-related quality of life. The prospective health-related quality of life study collected 14 patient-reported outcomes measures preoperatively and at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postoperatively.