The overarching goal of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is to provide Dr. Amanda Gilmore with the training and research activities needed to become an independent investigator. Her program of research will focus on the development, testing, and dissemination of innovative, technology-based prevention focused on adolescent substance use, sexual assault (SA), and sexual risk behaviors (SRBs) in primary care settings. Substance use, sexual assault, and sexual risk behaviors are common among adolescents. They occur concurrently and are interrelated, making integrated prevention concerning these health risk behaviors imperative. Preventative visits in pediatric primary care settings are an ideal location to implement brief, integrated prevention due to their potential for wide reach. This proposal includes training activities to ensure that Dr. Gilmore achieves the following five new career goals: 1) Receive training in integrated prevention for adolescents to become a prevention researcher focused on preventing substance use, SA, and SRBs; 2) Receive training in implementing prevention-based clinical trials in primary care settings using screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) models; 3) Enhance statistical training in clinical trials and longitudinal analyses; 4) Enhance training in the use of innovative technologies as a mode of delivering prevention programs; 5) Increase manuscript writing, grant writing, and grant management skills; and 6) Enhance understanding of research ethics. The mentorship team includes expert psychologists and pediatricians in the following areas of research: integrated prevention of adolescent risk behavior and violence prevention (Self-Brown, Danielson), substance use SBIRT in pediatrics (Levy), technology-based prevention programs for adolescents (Ruggiero), research within community pediatric practice research networks (Wallis), longitudinal data analyses from clinical trials (Ramakrishnan), brief interventions for opioid misuse and sexual risk behaviors (Cooper), and interventions for sexual minorities (Kaysen). Dr. Gilmore will apply the skills acquired during the training activities to a research project focused on the adaptation and integration of evidence-based prevention programs targeting adolescent substance use, sexual assault, and sexual risk behaviors to a tablet-based prevention program for primary care. The research project includes focus groups and expert input in the adaptation/integration phase, usability tests with both adolescents and physicians within community pediatric clinics, and a feasibility study within community pediatric clinics. The feasibility study will establish feasibility of conducting a larger randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of the newly integrated and adapted prevention program. Preliminary efficacy of the prevention program will be examined, but determining feasibility is the primary goal. This award will prepare Dr. Gilmore for an independent research career focused on the development, testing, and dissemination of prevention focused on substance use, sexual assault, and sexual risk among adolescents in primary care.
Adolescent substance use, sexual assault, and sexual risk behaviors pose a great public health concern, and subsequently there is also a great need to prevent these behaviors and experiences. This project involves the adaptation and integration of evidence-based prevention content aimed at preventing and reducing substance use, sexual assault, and sexual risk behaviors. This project uses innovative technology within primary care visits to conduct a feasibility trial of an integrated prevention program.
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