• J Gen Intern Med · Apr 2022

    Increasing Engagement of Women Veterans in Health Research.

    • Joya G Chrystal, Karen E Dyer, Cynthia E Gammage, Ruth S Klap, Diane V Carney, Susan M Frayne, Elizabeth M Yano, and Alison B Hamilton.
    • VA HSR&D Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation and Policy (CSHIIP), VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Joya.Chrystal@va.gov.
    • J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Apr 1; 37 (Suppl 1): 42-49.

    BackgroundMeaningful engagement of patients in health research has the potential to increase research impact and foster patient trust in healthcare. For the past decade, the Veterans Health Administration (VA) has invested in increasing Veteran engagement in research.ObjectiveWe sought the perspectives of women Veterans, VA women's health primary care providers (WH-PCPs), and administrators on barriers to and facilitators of health research engagement among women Veterans, the fastest growing subgroup of VA users.DesignSemi-structured qualitative telephone interviews were conducted from October 2016 to April 2018.ParticipantsWomen Veterans (N=31), WH-PCPs (N=22), and administrators (N=6) were enrolled across five VA Women's Health Practice-Based Research Network sites.ApproachInterviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Consensus-based coding was conducted by two expert analysts.Key ResultsAll participants endorsed the importance of increasing patient engagement in women's health research. Women Veterans expressed altruistic motives as a personal determinant for research engagement, and interest in driving women's health research forward as a stakeholder or research partner. Challenges to engagement included lack of awareness about opportunities, distrust of research, competing priorities, and confidentiality concerns. Suggestions to increase engagement include utilizing VA's patient-facing portals of the electronic health record for outreach, facilitating "warm hand-offs" between researchers and clinic staff, developing an accessible research registry, and communicating the potential research impact for Veterans.ConclusionsParticipants expressed support for increasing women Veterans' engagement in women's health research and identified feasible ways to foster and implement engagement of women Veterans. Given the unique healthcare needs of women Veterans, engaging them in research could translate to improved care, especially for future generations. Knowledge about how to improve women Veterans' research engagement can inform future VA policy and practice for more meaningful interventions and infrastructure.© 2021. The Author(s).

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…