Factors responsible for healthcare avoidance among rural adults in the Eastern Region of North Carolina

Clinical Outcomes and Financial Impact of a POEM Program at a Rural Tertiary Medical Center: Our First five Years

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to assess the 5-year impact of a per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) program on both clinical and financial outcomes for our hospital system and the rural community we serve.

METHODS

We evaluated the clinical and financial outcomes of all patients who underwent POEM for achalasia. Patients were also contacted by phone to complete the Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease-Health Related Quality of Life (GERD-HRQL) questionnaire postoperatively. Financial data for all robot-assisted laparoscopic Heller myotomy patients from our institution during the same period were also obtained for cost comparison.

RESULTS

A total of 107 patients underwent POEM in the first 5 years following program implementation, with a mean age of 61.4 ± 17.9 years. There were 75 patients (70%) who participated in the GERD-HRQL survey at a mean follow-up of 84 weeks (range, 6 to 244 weeks). There were 88.2% of respondents who reported no or minimal dysphagia symptoms, and 93.4% of respondents reported no or minimal reflux symptoms. On postoperative upper endoscopy, 19.1% of patients had esophagitis. Implementation of the POEM program resulted in a substantial increase in case volume, growing from 5 myotomy cases per year to 24 myotomy cases per year after 2017. Cost analysis demonstrated a significantly lower index encounter cost for POEM compared with robot-assisted laparoscopic Heller myotomy of approximately $6,000.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates the effectiveness and positive financial impact for both our community and hospital system following implementation of a POEM program at a tertiary medical center serving a large, rural population.

Strengths and opportunities to clinical trial enrollment among BIPOC, rural dwelling patients in the northwest United States: a retrospective study

Introduction: Clinical trials investigating the safety and efficacy of experimental drugs and devices are the cornerstone of medicinal advancement. Enrolling sufficient participants in these trials is vital to ensure adequate statistical power and generalizability. Clinical trial participation is particularly low among certain populations, including medically underserved communities (i.e., rural areas) and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Methods: A retrospective study design was used to understand patient outcomes and access/barriers to clinical trial participation in the rural northwest United States. A quantitatively focused retrospective chart review was conducted for adult participants enrolled in at least one clinical trial in a single northwest health system between 1999 and 2022. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed to assess trial outcomes at a significance level 0.05. Results: The retrospective chart review yielded 833 clinical trial records with 753 individual enrolled participants. The all-cause relative frequency of death at last known follow-up amongst clinical trial participants was 8.90% (n = 67). Based on logistic regression, the death was significantly associated with the participants' age at initial trial screening (β = 0.09, p-value <0.001), those that resided in non-metro areas (β = -0.86, p-value = 0.045), and those that lived in Northeastern Montana (β = 1.27, p-value = 0.025). Additionally, death at last known follow-up was significantly associated with enrollment in 2021-2022 (β = -1.52, p-value <0.001), enrolled in more than one study (β = 0.84, p-value = 0.023), in internationally sponsored trials (β = -2.08, p-value <0.001), in Phase I (β = 5.34, p-value <0.001), in Phase II trials (β = 1.37, p-value = 0.013), diabetes as a primary trial target (β = -2.04, p-value = 0.003). Conclusion: As decentralized trial design and remote or virtual elements of traditional trials become normative, representation of rural and frontier populations is imperative to support the generalizability of trial data encouraged by the FDA.

The impact of the covid-19 outbreak on unmet health care needs in istanbul

Background & aim

COVID-19 pandemic caused significant barriers to maintain health services. Our study determines the frequency and significant determinants of unmet health needs in Istanbul both in 2019, a pre-pandemic year, and in 2021, a pandemic year and compares the results COVID-19 era to a prior to pandemic year.

Methods

As our study is the first questing Istanbul experience, we estimate the frequencies and determinants of unmet healthcare need among +15 population using TurkStat's Income and Living Conditions Survey Data via Generalized Linear Models (GLMs).

Results

We found that the most prominent barriers were late appointment dates and financial difficulty both before and during the pandemic. According to our findings, women and those having any chronic disease become significantly more likely to have unmet health needs during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic period. Indeed, the ones belonging to the lowest income group and having lower level perceived health were disadvantaged with higher change of unmet needs both prior to and during the pandemic. Furthermore, the frequency of the Istanbulers who had unmet healthcare needs increased more than 1.5 time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusions

As unmet healthcare needs due to COVID-19 jeopardizing the healthcare systems, it is important to comprehend the causes of unmet healthcare demands during infectious disease outbreaks in order to prioritize the right policies and protection strategies for the most vulnerable ones.

Receiving or not deemed necessary healthcare services

BACKGROUND

Avoiding deemed necessary healthcare needs may worsen prognosis and treatment options, and damage people's ability to perform their roles in society. Our study investigates why people avoid healthcare services in an upper-middle-income country, Türkiye.

METHODS

We apply TurkStat's 2012 Health Survey Data that includes a comprehensive health and social-demographic information of 28,055 survey participants who were 15 + aged. We use bivariate probit model to analyze the avoidance behavior in inpatient level in accordance with outpatient level because of the observed significant correlation between people's avoidance behavior under tertiary and lower level health care.

RESULTS

The findings show that 2.6% of 15 + aged population avoided deemed necessary hospital services. Furthermore, we found that high cost (31%), organizational factors (21%) and fear (12%) are prominent reasons of avoiding tertiary care. Thereafter, in our bivariate probit model findings, we figure out that being covered by social security schemes decreases the probability of avoiding both outpatient and inpatient health services by 6.9%. Moreover, being female, living in rural area, having lower income increase the chance of being avoider in both stages of healthcare.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that social inequalities are the main underlying determinants of the avoiding behavior.

Healthcare Avoidance before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Australian Youth: A Longitudinal Study

BACKGROUND

Access to healthcare for young people is essential to ensure they can build a foundation for a healthy life. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people avoided seeking healthcare, adversely affecting population health. We investigated the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare for Australian young people when they reported that they needed healthcare. We were able to compare healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic with healthcare avoidance prior to COVID-19.

METHODS

We used two recent data collection waves from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)-Wave 9C1 during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and Wave 8 data which were collected in 2018. The primary outcome of this study revealed the avoidance of healthcare among those who perceived the need for care. Bivariate analyses and multiple logistic regression models were employed to identify the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare during the COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 periods.

RESULTS

In the sample of 1110 young people, 39.6% avoided healthcare during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic even though they perceived that they had a health problem that required healthcare. This healthcare avoidance was similar to the healthcare avoidance in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (41.4%). The factors most strongly associated with healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic were female gender, an ongoing medical condition, and moderately high psychological distress. In comparison, prior to the pandemic, the factor associated with healthcare avoidance was only psychological distress. The most common reason for not seeking healthcare was thinking that the problem would spontaneously resolve itself (55.9% during COVID-19 vs. 35.7% pre-COVID-19 pandemic).

CONCLUSIONS

A large proportion of youths avoided healthcare when they felt they needed to seek care, both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic.