Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
-
Womens Health Issues · Jan 2014
Five-year trends in women veterans' use of VA maternity benefits, 2008-2012.
An increasing number of young women veterans are returning from war and military service and are seeking reproductive health care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Many of these women seek maternity benefits from the VHA, and yet little is known regarding the number of women veterans utilizing VHA maternity benefits nor the characteristics of pregnant veterans using these benefits. In May 2010, VHA maternity benefits were expanded to include 7 days of infant care, which may serve to entice more women to use VHA maternity benefits. Understanding the changing trends in women veterans seeking maternity benefits will help the VHA to improve the quality of reproductive care over time. ⋯ Over a 5-year period, the volume of women veterans using VHA maternity benefits increased by 44%. Given this sizeable increase, the VHA must increase its capacity to care for pregnant veterans and ensure care coordination systems are in place to address the needs of pregnant veterans with service-connected disabilities.
-
Womens Health Issues · Jan 2014
Implementing a prospective study of women seeking abortion in the United States: understanding and overcoming barriers to recruitment.
The Turnaway Study is designed to prospectively study the outcomes of women who sought-but did not all obtain-abortions. This design permits more accurate inferences about the health consequences of abortion for women, but requires the recruitment of a large number of women from remote health care facilities to a study a sensitive topic. This paper explores the Turnaway Study's recruitment process. ⋯ Prioritizing scientific rigor over the convenience of using existing datasets, the Turnaway Study confronted recruitment challenges common to medical practice-based studies and unique to sensitive services. Visiting sites and communicating frequently with facility staff, as well as offering incentives to patients to hear more about the study before informed consent, may help to increase participation in prospective health studies and facilitate evaluation of sensitive women's health services.