Jennifer Kuntz, PhD, is a pharmacoepidemiologist and infectious disease epidemiologist.
Dr. Kuntz’s research answers questions about the safety and effectiveness of medication use and seeks to identify strategies that improve the way medications are used in clinical practice. Dr. Kuntz is particularly interested in research that leads to improvements in medication use among older persons.
Dr. Kuntz’s work also focused on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including health care-associated infections. She has extensive experience and expertise in the study of Clostridioides difficile infection. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has also contributed to research that evaluates the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and contributes to our understanding of the epidemiology of COVID-19.
Dr. Kuntz received her MS and PhD in epidemiology from the University of Iowa College of Public Health. She joined CHR in 2010.
Selected Publications
Medical Safety
- Kuntz JL, Dickerson JF, Schneider JL, Firemark AJ, Papajorgji-Taylor D, Slaughter M, Reese KR, Thorsness LA, Sullivan MD, Debar LL, Smith DH. Factors associated with opioid-tapering success: A mixed methods study. J Am Pharm Assoc(2003) 2021 May-Jun;61(3):248-257.e1. PMID: 33485815; PMCID: PMC8127339
- Kuntz JL, Kouch L, Christian D, Hu W, Peterson PL. Patient education and pharmacist consultation influence on nonbenzodiazepine sedative medication deprescribing success for older adults. Perm J 2019;23:18-161. PMID: 30624198; PMCID: PMC6326560
- Kuntz J, Kouch L, Christian D, Peterson PL, Gruss I. Barriers and Facilitators to the Deprescribing of Nonbenzodiazepine Sedative Medications Among Older Adults. Perm J. 2017 Apr 20;22. doi: 10.7812/TPP/17-157.
- Adams AL, Adams JL, Raebel MA, Tang BT, Kuntz JL, Vijayadeva V, McGlynn EA, Gozansky WS. Bisphosphonate Drug Holiday and Fracture Risk: A Population-Based Cohort Study. J Bone Miner Res. 2018 Mar 12. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.3420. PMID: 29529334
Infectious Disease
- Thompson MG, Burgess JL, Naleway AL, Tyner H, Yoon SK, Meece J, Olsho LEW, Caban-Martinez AJ, Fowlkes AL, Lutrick K, Groom HC, Dunnigan K, Odean MJ, Hegmann K, Stefanski E, Edwards LJ, Schaefer-Solle N, Grant L, Ellingson K, Kuntz JL, et al. Prevention and attenuation of Covid-19 with the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines. N Engl J Med 2021 Jun 30. PMID: 34192428
- Tyner HL, Burgess JL, Grant L, Gaglani M, Kuntz JL, Naleway AL, Thornburg NJ, Caban-Martinez AJ, Yoon SK, Herring MK, Beitel SC, Blanton L, Nikolich-Zugich J, Thiese MS, Pleasants JF, Fowlkes AL, Lutrick K, Dunnigan K, Yoo YM, Rose S, Groom H, Meece J, Wesley MG, Schaefer-Solle N, Louzado-Feliciano P, Edwards LJ, Olsho LEW, Thompson MG. Neutralizing Antibody Response to Pseudotype SARS-CoV-2 Differs between mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccines and by History of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Dec 20:ciab1038. PMID: 34928334
- Russo EM, Kuntz J, Yu H, Smith J, Hauser RG, Halchenko Y, Young-Xu Y. Incidence of Clostridioides difficile infections among young and middle-aged adults: Veterans Health Administration. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2019 Sep;40(9):997-1005. doi: 10.1017/ice.2019.160. Epub 2019 Jul 19. PMID: 31322101
- Kuntz J, Crane B, Weinmann S, Naleway AL; Vaccine Safety Datalink Investigator Team. Myocarditis and pericarditis are rare following live viral vaccinations in adults. Vaccine 2018 Mar 14;36(12):1524-1527. PMID: 29456017; PMCID: PMC6437672
- Kuntz JL, Johnson ES, Raebel MA, Platt RW, Petrik AF, Yang X, Thorp ML, Spindel SJ, Neil N, Smith DH. Predicting the risk of Clostridium difficile infection following an outpatient visit: development and external validation of a pragmatic, prognostic risk score. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2015 Mar;21(3):256-62. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2014.11.001. PMID: 25658533