Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
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Womens Health Issues · Jul 2003
ReviewThe primary prevention of heart disease in women through health behavior change promotion in primary care.
To summarize recent evidence-based recommendations for physical activity promotion, dietary improvement, and tobacco cessation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (CTF), and examine their applicability to the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women through primary care interventions. ⋯ Primary care clinicians, including obstetrician-gynecologists, can contribute to preventing CVD in women through implementing credible evidence-based recommendations for clinical interventions in tobacco and healthy diet. Researchers can further our understanding of gender-specific issues in healthy behavior interventions by reporting process and outcome data for gender and minority subgroups.
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Womens Health Issues · May 2003
Comparative StudyPrenatal care characteristics and African-American women's satisfaction with care in a managed care organization.
This study examined the characteristics of prenatal care affecting women's satisfaction for two groups of African-American women, those with Medicaid insurance and those with commercial insurance, who sought care through a large managed care organization in the Midwest. African-American pregnant managed care patients (n = 400), regardless of payer status, were more satisfied when their providers spent more time with them and when their providers engaged them by explaining procedures, asking them questions, and answering their questions. ⋯ The care characteristics most important to an African-American woman's satisfaction with prenatal care do not appear to be dependent on her payer status, nor do they seem to be particularly dependent on the financial arrangements of her care provider. While improvements in health care delivery tend to focus on increasing technical proficiency to improve pregnant women's satisfaction with care, prenatal care providers should focus on improvements in patient-provider communication, as well as features of the prenatal care setting (e.g., cleanliness, waiting times, availability of ancillary services).
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Womens Health Issues · Mar 2003
The organization and delivery of women's health care in Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Congressional eligibility reforms have profoundly changed the array of services to be made available to women veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities. These include access not only to primary and specialty care services already afforded VA users, but also to a full spectrum of gender-specific services, including prenatal, obstetric, and infertility services never before provided in VA settings. The implications of this legislative mandate for delivering care to women veterans are poorly understood, as little or no information has been available about how care for women veterans is organized. This article reports on the first national assessment of variations in the organization of care for women veterans.
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Womens Health Issues · Mar 2003
Availability of comprehensive women's health care through Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Despite increased numbers of women veterans, little is known about health services delivery to women across the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). To assess VA availability of women's health services, we surveyed the senior clinician at each VA site serving 400 or more women veterans. ⋯ On-site care, however, is routinely available only for basic services. Future work should evaluate cost and quality trade-offs between using non-VA sites to increase specialized service availability and using VA sites to enhance continuity of care.