If you’re like most people, your health depends more on what you do every day than on what your health care provider can do for you. Nonetheless, making healthy lifestyle choices can be difficult, especially when it means changing your daily routine and then maintaining these changes over time. That’s why scientists with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) are working to make the right choices the easy and sustainable ones.
Research suggests that approximately one-third of all deaths in the Unites States are related to 4 behavioral risk factors: physical inactivity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use. But other behaviors are also critical to health and well-being, such as not misusing prescription opioids or marijuana, getting routine cancer screenings, and following your providers’ medical advice.
Historically, KPWHRI's research has tested different forms of behavioral counseling or novel ways to deliver this counseling. Increasingly, we are now testing digital therapeutic interventions delivered via smartphone app or text — for example, to help people set and achieve their health goals. People like the convenience of digital interventions, but it remains to be seen how effective they are and for whom they work best. Our research is helping to answer these important questions.
KPWHRI’s behavioral medicine research includes:
Cheadle A, Psaty BM, Diehr P, Koepsell T, Wagner E, Curry S, Kristal A. Evaluating community-based nutrition programs: comparing grocery store and individual-level survey measures of program impact. Prev Med. 1995;24(1):71-9. PubMed
McAfee T, Wilson J, Dacey S, Sofian N, Curry S, Wagener B. Awakening the sleeping giant: Mainstreaming efforts to decrease tobacco use in an HMO. HMO Pract. 1995, 9(3): 138-143.
Curry S, Marlatt GA. Unaided quitters' strategies for coping with temptation to smoke. In: S. Shiffman and T.A. Wills (Eds). Coping and Drug Use, Florida: Academic Press, 1995.
Curry S, Ludman E. Tobacco and alcohol interventions in health maintenance organizations: Principles and challenges from a public health perspective. In: J.B. Fertig & J.P. Allen (Eds). Alcohol and Tobacco: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice. NIDA Research Monograph No. 30, NIAAA: Bethesda, MD, 1995.
McBride C, Curry S, Lando H, Pirie P. Stress, depression and smoking cessation among pregnant women. Ann Behav Med. 1995;17(Suppl):S061.
Katharine A. Bradley, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Paula Lozano, MD, MPHSenior Investigator; Director, ACT Center |
Jennifer B. McClure, PhDDirector, Investigative Science |
Dori E. Rosenberg, PhD, MPHSenior Investigator |
James D. Ralston, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Ben Balderson, PhDSenior Collaborative Scientist |
Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH, MSWAssistant Investigator |
Melissa L. Anderson, MSPrincipal Collaborative Biostatistician |
Paula R. Blasi, MPHCollaborative Scientist |
Joseph E. Glass, PhD, MSWAssociate Investigator |
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Julie E. Richards, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
Leah K. Hamilton, PhDSenior Collaborative Scientist |
Chloe Krakauer, PhDCollaborative Biostatistician |
Mikael Anne Greenwood-Hickman, MPHCollaborative Scientist |
Pamela A. Shaw, PhD, MSSenior Biostatistics Investigator |
Kelsey Stefanik-Guizlo, MPHCollaborative Scientist |
Sheryl L. Catz, PhD
Professor, Health Care Innovation and Technology, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing
University of California–Davis
Sue McCurry, PhD
University of Washington (UW) Department of Psychosocial and Community Health
Emily Williams, PhD, MPH
UW Department of Health Services; VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence