Alex Ajayi Awarded C2DREAM Pilot Grant

Professor Alex Ajayi has been awarded a $25,000 pilot grant from the Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota (C2DREAM) for the project “A Longitudinal Analysis of Healthcare Factors and Mediators That Influence Smoking Cessation Treatment Uptake and Outcomes: Secondary Analysis of the SCORE Trial.” For this project, Ajayi will analyse longitudinal data from the Smoking Cessation Outreach for Equity (SCORE) trial, a large-scale study that tests whether adding a year of proactive motivational-interviewing outreach calls to routine primary-care smoking screening helps Minnesotan smokers quit. The pilot will investigate how patient characteristics and healthcare experiences predict the uptake of evidence-based quit aids (e.g., nicotine replacement therapies, prescription medications, counseling) and how these factors predict smoking cessation success over the study’s 18-month follow-up period. Ajayi hopes the project will further our understanding of the drivers of tobacco-related health disparities and inform the development of responsive cessation interventions.

C2DREAM is a partnership between the University of Minnesota Program in Health Disparities Research, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, and the Mayo Clinic. C2DREAM seeks to reduce differences in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and the related chronic conditions of hypertension and obesity experienced by people across Minnesota.

Alex Ajayi, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Composed by Madison Stromberg, communications assistant.