Education level and hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: an education approach is required

Interventions to Prevent Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review

Background

The demand for healthcare is increasing due to an aging population, more people living with chronic diseases and medical comorbidities. To manage this demand, political institutions call for action to reduce the potentially avoidable hospitalizations. Quantitative and qualitative aspects should be considered to understand how and why interventions work, and for whom. The aim of this mixed methods systematic review was to identify and synthesize evidence on interventions targeting avoidable hospitalizations from the perspectives of the citizens and the healthcare professionals to improve the preventive healthcare services.

Methods and Results

A mixed methods systematic review was conducted following the JBI methodology using a convergent integrated approach to synthesis. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO, reg. no. CRD42020134652. A systematic search was undertaken in six databases. In total, 45 articles matched the eligibility criteria, and 25 of these (five qualitative studies and 20 quantitative studies) were found to be of acceptable methodological quality. From the 25 articles, 99 meaning units were extracted. The combined evidence revealed four categories, which were synthesized into two integrated findings: (1) Addressing individual needs through care continuity and coordination prevent avoidable hospitalizations and (2) Recognizing preventive care as an integrated part of the healthcare work to prevent avoidable hospitalizations.

Conclusions

The syntheses highlight the importance of addressing individual needs through continuous and coordinated care practices to prevent avoidable hospitalizations. Engaging healthcare professionals in preventive care work and considering implications for patient safety may be given higher priority. Healthcare administers and policy-makers could support the delivery of preventive care through targeted educational material aimed at healthcare professionals and simple web-based IT platforms for information-sharing across healthcare settings. The findings are an important resource in the development and implementation of interventions to prevent avoidable hospitalizations, and may serve to improve patient safety and quality in preventive healthcare services.

Systematic Review Registration:https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=134652, identifier: CRD42020134652.

Person-centred care to prevent hospitalisations - a focus group study addressing the views of healthcare providers

Background

The primary healthcare sector comprises various health services, including disease prevention at local level. Research shows that targeted primary healthcare services can prevent the development of acute complications and ultimately reduce the risk of hospitalisations. While interdisciplinary collaboration has been suggested as a means to improve the quality and responsiveness of personal care needs in preventive services, effective implementation remains a challenge. To improve the quality and responsiveness of primary healthcare and to develop initiatives to support the interdisciplinary collaboration in preventive services, there is a need to investigate the views of primary healthcare providers. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of preventive care among primary healthcare providers by examining their views on what constitutes a need for hospitalisation, and which strategies are found useful to prevent hospitalisation. Further, to explain how interdisciplinary collaboration can be supported with a view to providing person-centred care.

Methods

Five focus group interviews were conducted with 27 healthcare providers, including general practitioners, social and healthcare assistants, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, home care nurses, specialist nurses and acute care nurses. Interviews were transcribed, and analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Results

Three categories emerged from the analysis: 1) Mental and social conditions influence physical functioning and hospitalisation need, 2) Well-established primary healthcare services are important to provide person-centred care through interdisciplinary collaboration and 3) Interdisciplinary collaboration in primary healthcare services is predominantly focussed on handling acute physical conditions. These describe that the healthcare providers are attentive towards the influence of mental, social and physical conditions on the risk of hospitalisation, entailing a focus on person-centred care. Nevertheless, in the preventive services, interdisciplinary collaboration focusses primarily on handling acute physical conditions, which constitutes a barrier for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Conclusions

By focusing on the whole person, it could be possible to provide more person-centred care through interdisciplinary collaboration and ultimately to prevent some hospitalisations. Stakeholders at all levels should be informed about the relevance of considering mental, social and physical conditions to improve the quality and responsiveness of primary healthcare services and to develop initiatives to support interdisciplinary collaboration.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08198-6.

Pro-vaccination Groups Expressing Hesitant Attitudes: A Cross-Sectional Study About the Difference Between Attitudes and Actual Behavior in Israel

Background

Vaccines have contributed to the decline in mortality, morbidity, and even the eradication of various infectious diseases. Over time, the availability of information to the public and the request for public involvement in the health decision-making process have risen, and the confidence in vaccines has dropped. An increasing number of parents and individuals are choosing to delay or refuse vaccines.

Objectives

(1) Identifying hesitant attitudes among pro-vaccination parents; (2) testing the difference between the rate of hesitant attitudes and the rate of hesitancy in practice among pro-vaccination parents; and (3) examining the association of sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, marital status education and religious affiliation) with the difference between hesitant attitudes and hesitancy in practice among pro-vaccination parents.

Methods

Descriptive cross-sectional survey using an online survey that measured vaccine hesitancy among pro-vaccination parents (n = 558) whose children were in kindergarten (3–5 years), according to a variety of sociodemographic characteristics.

Results

A significant difference was found between the rate of hesitant attitudes and the rate of hesitation in actual vaccination among pro-vaccination and hesitant parents, where despite that 26% of the parents had hesitant attitudes, only 19% hesitated in practice [P = 0.0003]. There was also a significant difference between the rate of hesitant attitudes and the rate of hesitancy in practice among women [P = 0.0056] and men [P = 0.0158], parents between 30 and 39 years of age [P = 0.0008], traditional parents [P = 0.0093], Non-academic parents [P = 0.0007] and parents with BA degree [P = 0.0474].

Conclusion

Pro-vaccination individuals may have hesitant attitudes regarding vaccines. Therefore, it is very important for health authorities to address the public's fears and concerns, including those who are classified as pro-vaccination.

The Association of Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Geographic Factors with Potentially Preventable Emergency Department Utilization

Introduction

Prevention quality indicators (PQI) are a set of measures used to characterize healthcare utilization for conditions identified as being potentially preventable with high quality ambulatory care. These indicators have recently been adapted for emergency department (ED) patient presentations. In this study the authors sought to identify opportunities to potentially prevent emergency conditions and to strengthen systems of ambulatory care by analyzing patterns of ED utilization for PQI conditions.

Methods

Using multivariable logistic regression, the authors analyzed the relationship of patient demographics and neighborhood-level socioeconomic indicators with ED utilization for PQI conditions based on ED visits at an urban, academic medical center in 2017. We also used multilevel modeling to assess the contribution of these variables to neighborhood-level variation in the likelihood of an ED visit for a PQI condition.

Results

Of the included 98,522 visits, 17.5% were categorized as potentially preventable based on the ED PQI definition. On multivariate analysis, age < 18 years, Black race, and Medicare insurance had the strongest positive associations with PQI visits, with adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of 1.41 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29, 1.56), 1.40 (95% CI, 1.22, 1.61), and 1.40 (95% CI, 1.28, 1.54), respectively. All included neighborhood-level socioeconomic variables were significantly associated with PQI visit likelihood on univariable analysis; however; only level of education attainment and private car ownership remained significantly associated in the multivariable model, with aOR of 1.13 (95% CI, 1.10, 1.17) and 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93, 0.99) per quartile increase, respectively. This multilevel model demonstrated significant variation in PQI visit likelihood attributable to neighborhood, with interclass correlation decreasing from 5.92% (95% CI, 5.20, 6.73) in our unadjusted model to 4.12% (95% CI, 3.47, 4.87) in our fully adjusted model and median OR similarly decreasing from 1.54 to 1.43.

Conclusion

Demographic and local socioeconomic factors were significantly associated with ED utilization for PQI conditions. Future public health efforts can bolster efforts to target underlying social drivers of health and support access to primary care for patients who are Black, Latino, pediatric, or Medicare-dependent to potentially prevent emergency conditions (and the need for emergency care). Further research is needed to explore other factors beyond demographics and socioeconomic characteristics driving spatial variation in ED PQI visit likelihood.

Socioeconomic Determinants in Vaccine Hesitancy and Vaccine Refusal in Italy

Childhood vaccination has been a milestone in the control of infectious diseases. However, even in countries offering equal access to vaccination, a number of vaccine-preventable diseases have re-emerged. Suboptimal vaccination coverage has been called into question. The aim was to explore socioeconomic inequalities in vaccine hesitancy and outright refusal. Families with at least one child aged between 3 months and 7 years were involved through an online survey. Families were classified as provaccine, hesitant, or antivaccine. The association between socioeconomic determinants and hesitancy/refusal was investigated with a logistic-regression model. A total of 3865 questionnaires were collected: 64.0% of families were provaccine, 32.4% hesitant, and 3.6% antivaccine. Rising levels of perceived economic hardship were associated with hesitancy (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) from 1.34 to 1.59), and lower parental education was significantly associated with refusal (AOR from 1.89 to 3.39). Family economic hardship and parental education did not move in parallel. Economic hardship was a determinant of hesitancy. Lower education was a predictor of outright refusal without affecting hesitancy. These findings may serve as warnings, and further explanations of socioeconomic inequities are needed even in universal healthcare systems. Insight into these factors is necessary to improve convenience and remove potential access issues.