Kristine Browning

Dr. Browning’s national program of research includes the examination of underlying determinants of tobacco use in order to further understand tobacco use behavior. Her work has examined socioeconomic disparities among the delivery of smoking cessation assistance by healthcare providers. Evidence-based smoking cessation interventions, including assistance, should be systematically delivered to all patients who are current smokers. Dr. Browning’s other work in tobacco control includes examining how principles of acculturation contribute to how Hispanic men and women misclassify their smoking status and state of the science papers that summarize salient tobacco control topics in special populations such as HIV-positive, low socioeconomic, and immigrants.

Continued smoking after a lung cancer diagnosis remains a significant problem as it contributes to poor disease and treatment-related outcomes. Although lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality for both men and women, there is a paucity of smoking cessation intervention research with lung cancer patients. Dr. Browning’s research has examined smoking behaviors of lung cancer patients from the perspective of the Self-Regulation of Illness Representation and found that understanding the context in which a patient perceives their disease and smoking behavior may contribute to influencing behavior change. In addition, Dr. Browning has combined her clinical experience as an adult nurse practitioner in oncology care with examining salient patient related topics in cancer survivorship care.