Seung Hee Choi PhD, RN (hc0054)

• Smoker couples
• Blue collar workers
• Cancer patients

350 Cohn, 5557 Cass Ave., Detroit, MI 48202

Dr. Seung Hee Choi’s research has focused on the effects of engaging in multiple health behaviors, where individuals participate in two or more health risk behaviors simultaneously. Specifically, Dr. Choi has examined the impact of smoking-involved multiple health behaviors on health outcomes and health-related quality of life. Engaging in multiple health behaviors has been associated with a higher risk of developing chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases or cancers, and increased all-cause mortality. Notably, when smoking is involved in multiple health behaviors, mortality risks are even higher than those associated with other risk behaviors.

More recently, Dr. Seung Hee Choi has focused on smoker couples, where at least one partner smokes. She conducted several survey studies with smoker couples to examine couple dynamics associated with smoking behavior and preferences for couple-based smoking cessation interventions. Based on the findings from these survey studies, Dr. Choi and her team developed a web app for smoking cessation, WeQuit, tailored to smoker couples. The WeQuit app is currently undergoing pilot testing. Dr. Choi’s long-term goal is to promote smoking cessation and health by advancing smoking cessation interventions specifically designed for underserved smokers, including smoker couples.

Wednesday, 4-5 p.m.

As a behavioral scientist and nurse researcher, Dr. Choi has focused on smoking behavior and its impact on health outcomes among underserved populations such as blue collar workers, cancer patients and smoker couples where at least one partner smokes. Dr. Choi has published 26 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals with moderate- to high-impact factors ranging from 0.90 to 5.04. One of her papers has been selected as a Top 10% Most Cited Paper by Plos One in 2019. She has delivered more than 33 presentations at international, national and regional conferences. Dr. Choi has been chosen as a New Investigator Award Winner for Best Abstracts by the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco in 2018 and has co-authored one book chapter about nursing research.

• Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2014
• PhD, University of Michigan, 2012
• MSN, Seould National University, 2008
• BSN, Inha University, 2000

• Smoking behavior and its impact on health outcomes among underserved populations
• Smoking cessation interventions for smoker couples

• Choi, SH., Templin, T. (in press). Discrete Choice Experiment for Dyadic Data Collection: Eliciting Preferences of Couple-Based Smoking Cessation Interventions. Women’s health Nursing.
• Choi, SH., Templin, T. (2023). College Students’ Preferences for Smoking Cessation Interventions: A Discrete Choice Experiment. Health Education Research. 38(6): 563-574. doi:10.1093/her/cyad035.
• Choi, SH., Templin, T., & Marrocco, A. (2023) Development of an online discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for tobacco treatment among college students. Journal of American College Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2023.2227715.
• Kim, W., Choi, SH. (2023). Smoking, stress, and health risk behaviors during the early phase of COVID-19 lockdown among residents of Flint, Michigan. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
• Choi, SH. Stommel, M., Broman, C., Raheb-Rauckis, C. (2022). Age of Smoking Initiation in Relation to Multiple Health Risk Factors Among U.S. Adult Smokers: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data (2006 – 2018). Behavioral Medicine. 2022:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2022.2060930.
• Choi, SH. (2022). A Systematic Review and Narrative Summary of Couple-based Smoking Cessation Interventions. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi: 10.1177/02654075211070272.
• Choi, SH., Stommel, M., Ling, J., Noonan, D., Chung, J. (2020). The impact of smoking and multiple health behaviors on all-cause mortality. Behavioral Medicine. 2020:1-8. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2020.1796570.
• Broman, C., Wright, MK., Choi, SH., & Wang, Y. (2020). Heavy substance use in young adulthood. Journal of Substance Use. doi: 10.1080/14659891.2020.176036
• Choi, SH., Ling, J., Noonan, D., Kim, W. (2019). Smoking Behavior and Social Contexts Associated with Smoking Among Dual-Smoker Couples. Public Health Nursing
• Choi, SH., Chan, R., Lehto, RH. (2019). Relationships between smoking status and psychological distress, optimism, and health environment perceptions at time of diagnosis of actual or suspected lung cancer. Cancer Nursing

• 2019 Top 10% Most Cited Paper, Plos One: Choi, S. H., Terrell, J. E., Fowler, K. E., McLean, S. A., Ghanem, T., …Duffy, S. A. “Socioeconomic and other demographic disparities predicting survival among head and neck cancer patients”
• 2018 New Investigator Award Winner for Best Abstracts. Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco: Choi, S. H., & Stommel, M. “The role of smoking in the relationship between multiple health behaviors and all-cause mortality among U.S. adults”

• 2024-25, Choi, SH. (PI) – WeQuit: An automated, tailored web app for smoker couples. Funded by: STT Lambda Chapter
• 2024-25, Choi, SH. (PI) – Impact of frequency of distributing gift cards on engagement of a web-app for smoking cessation. Funded by: Harriet H. Werley Faculty award
• 2024-25, Choi, SH. (PI) - WeQuit: A pilot trial of a tailored web app for smoker couples. Funded by: University Research Grant

Dr. Choi’s research focuses on smoking among underserved populations (e.g., dual-smoker couples) and smoking-involved multiple health behaviors where individuals engage in not only smoking but also other health risk behaviors simultaneously. Engaging in multiple health behaviors has been associated with a greater risk for developing chronic diseases and mortality than can be expected by the sum of the separate effects of health behaviors. Particularly, whenever smoking is involved in multiple health behaviors, mortality risks are higher than any other risk behaviors. The ultimate goal of Dr. Choi’s research is to reduce health disparities among underserved populations by promoting smoking cessation.

Wayne State University College of Nursing