Current Projects

Commune SmokeFree Social Groups

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Pamela Ling (UCSF), Johannes Thrul (UCSF), Rescue

Funding: UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (PIs: Pamela Ling, Danielle Ramo)

This project will run groups addressing tobacco use with young adults around the San Francisco Bay Area. Goals for this service include smoking reduction and/or cessation and an eventual reduction in smoking-related illnesses in Bay Area communities. This project is supported by the San Francisco Cancer Initiative.

For more information contact the team at: [email protected]

Or see if you qualify at: smokefreesocial.jointhecommune.com


Tobacco Status Project (TSP)

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Judith Prochaska (Stanford), Sharon Hall (UCSF), Pamela Ling (UCSF), Kevin Delucchi (UCSF), Johannes Thrul (UCSF), Christopher Yang (Drexel University)

 

Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse K23DA032578 (PI: Danielle Ramo)

The Tobacco Status Project tested the efficacy of a Facebook intervention to help young adults quit smoking. Formative work has developed and determined feasibility of the intervention. 500 young adults were randomized in a clinical trial to receive the intervention or a control condition and measure effects on smoking outcomes up to 1 year.


Put It Out Project (POP)

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Gary Humfleet, (UCSF), Kevin Delucchi (UCSF), Judith Prochaska (Stanford), Urmimala Sarkar (UCSF), Johannes Thrul (UCSF), Ashley Sanders-Jackson (Michigan State University), Nicolas Sheon (UCSF)

Funding: UCSF School of Medicine (PI: Danielle Ramo)

Influenced by previous Facebook-based smoking interventions, this project is informing how mHealth interventions might support those who identify as belonging to sexual or gender minority groups in smoking reduction or cessation.


 

Smoking Tobacco and Drinking Study (STAND)

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Derek Satre (UCSF), Kevin Delucchi (UCSF), Judith Prochaska (Stanford), Sandra Brown (UCSD)

Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse R34DA041637 (PI: Danielle Ramo)

This project is developing a novel Facebook-based intervention to treat tobacco use and heavy drinking among young adults. With a multidisciplinary team, the project will include formative work and pilot test a combined Tobacco Status Project (TSP) + Drinking Intervention. Given the widespread co-occurrence of smoking and heavy drinking, it is imperative to know whether adding an alcohol component to the TSP intervention can lead to improved tobacco and drinking outcomes.


Teen Vaping Study

Collaborators: Mark Rubenstein (UCSF), Danielle Ramo (UCSF)

Funding: UCSF Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (PI of Developmental Study: Mark Rubinstein)

The researchers are conducting a study about electronic cigarettes (e-cigs/vape) in teenagers. They hope this study will help doctors and researchers better understand the use of e-cigarettes in adolescents, including what the risks may be.


Contact info:
http://www.teensmokingstudy.com/home2.html
415-508-TEEN


Measuring Combined Tobacco, E-Cigarette, and Marijuana in California

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Joanne Spetz (UCSF), Laura Schmidt (UCSF), Dorie Apollonio (UCSF)

Funding: California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (PI: Danielle Ramo)

This project will identify the extent of, predictors of, and attitudes toward policies affecting tobacco, marijuana, and e-cigarette co-use. Items will be added to the 2017 CHIS to gain an accurate estimate of simultaneous tobacco and marijuana use. The study will examine changes in attitudes towards marijuana regulatory policy before and after the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use (2016-2017), and to explore attitudes towards policy across substances . The long-term goal of the project is to help develop evidence-informed policy for e-cigarettes and marijuana, especially as it relates to youth and young adults.


Neighborhood Factors’ Impact On Young Adult Tobacco Use

Collaborators: Pamela Ling (UCSF), Louisa Holmes (SUNY Binghamton), Julia McQuoid (UCSF), MEI Research

Funding: NCI, Supplement to U01-154240 (PI: Johannes Thrul, PI of parent grant: Pamela Ling)

The neighborhood context is a potentially critical determinant of tobacco use among young adults. We are conducting an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study, using smartphone-based surveys, in combination with collecting GPS data on daily mobility patterns to study young adults’ exposure to different aspects of the neighborhoods they live in (e.g. point-of-sale advertisements in tobacco outlets and vape shops) and the impact of this exposure on tobacco use urges and behaviors.

This project will inform tobacco control policy and advance research methodology by using novel data collection methods to investigate substance use behavior in everyday life.

https://www.facebook.com/smartphone.smoking.study/


Patterns of Tobacco and Marijuana Use Among Young Adults

Collaborators: Danielle Ramo (UCSF), Judith Prochaska (Stanford), Sharon Hall (UCSF), Kevin Delucchi (UCSF)

Funding: California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program 18FT-0055 (PI: Danielle Ramo)

This project examines tobacco and marijuana co-use among young adults recruited and surveyed online, providing valuable information that can be used to develop interventions targeted to reduce smoking behavior in young adults.

 

Efficacy of Being Adept

The Readi Lab is collaborating with the Being Adept Prevention Intervention, led by Jennifer Grellman, MS, LMFT, to examine the efficacy of this substance abuse prevention program in middle schools throughout San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma counties. Dr. Ramo sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the organization, and has led data analyses examining the relationship between exposure to the intervention and mediators of substance use initiation including intentions to use and perceived harms of using alcohol and drugs.

Read more about Being Adept at http://livingadept.org/beingadept/.