Racial Differences in Perceptions of Genetic Wellness Programs.

PURPOSE: Genetic wellness programs (GWPs) are a highly innovative workforce wellness product. Recently marketed to U.S. employers by at least 16 vendors, GWPs take advantage of low-cost DNA sequencing to detect genetic risk factors for an increasing array of diseases. The purpose of this research is to understand perceptions, concerns, and barriers related to GWPs, among employees from Black, White, and Asian backgrounds and different income levels. APPROACH: Qualitative study with 3 focus groups (FGs). SETTING: Employees of large high-technology companies (deemed likely early GWP adopters). RESPONDENTS: 21 individuals recruited online through User Interviews. METHOD: FG guide developed via literature review and landscape analysis, and pre-tested. FGs led by a trained moderator and audio-recorded. Transcripts content analyzed for key themes. RESULTS: Nearly all respondents saw potential benefits to GWP participation for themselves or their families. However, there were profound differences in perceptions of risks to GWP participation between Black and White/Asian respondents. These differences surfaced in three broad areas: privacy and discrimination risks; family impact risks; and feelings about the employer. Willingness to participate in a GWP also varied between Black employee respondents and White and Asian employee respondents (including low-income White employees). Only 27% of Black employees would participate in GWP, compared to 90% of the other employees. CONCLUSION: Most employees appear likely to support employer adoption of GWPs. However, Black employees report significant concerns regarding participation. Addressing these concerns through program design would benefit all employees, and could increase trust and uptake of GWPs.

Improving Quality and Safety for Patients After Hospital Discharge: Primary Care as the Lead Integrator in Postdischarge Care Transitions.

To understand current and idealized primary care-based care transition workflow processes for hospitalized patients, we conducted 133 interviews with staff at 9 primary care sites; community agency staff (n = 18); recently discharged patients (n = 33); and primary care thought leaders (n = 9). Current postdischarge workflows in primary care vary widely across settings, are often implemented inconsistently, and rarely involve communications with the patient or inpatient team during hospitalization. Based on these findings, we propose 5 principles for primary care practices to facilitate active involvement in postdischarge care, beginning during the hospital admission and extending until after the initial postdischarge primary care visit.

Primary Care: the New Frontier for Reducing Readmissions.

To date, efforts to reduce hospital readmissions have centered largely on hospitals. In a recently published environmental scan, we examined the literature focusing on primary care-based efforts to reduce readmissions. While rigorous studies on interventions arising from primary care are limited, we found that multi-component care transitions programs that are initiated early in the hospitalization and are part of broader primary care practice transformation appear most promising. However, policy changes are necessary to spur innovation and support effective primary care-led transitions interventions. Though more rigorous research is needed, our findings suggest that primary care can and should lead future efforts for reducing hospital readmissions.

Understanding Patient, Provider, and System Factors Related to Medicaid Readmissions.

BACKGROUND: Efforts on reducing hospital readmissions, which are intended to improve quality and reduce costs, tend to focus on elderly Medicare beneficiaries without recognition of another high-risk population--adult nonmaternal Medicaid patients. This study was undertaken to understand the complexity of Medicaid readmission issues at the patient, provider, and system levels. METHODS: Multiple qualitative methods, including site visits to nine safety-net hospitals, patient/family/caregiver inter views, and semistructured interviews with health plans and state Medicaid agencies, were used in 2012 and 2013 to obtain information on patient, provider, and system issues related to Medicaid readmissions; strategies considered or currently used to address those issues; and any perceived financial, regulatory or, other policy factors inhibiting or facilitating readmission reduction efforts. RESULTS: Significant risk factors for Medicaid readmissions included financial stress, high prevalence of mental health and substance abuse disorders, medication nonadherence, and housing instability. Lacking awareness on Medicaid patients' high risk, a sufficient business case, and proven strategies for reducing readmissions were primary barriers for providers. Major hurdles at the system level included shortage of primary care and mental health providers, lack of coordination among providers, lack of partnerships between health plans and providers, and limited data capacity for realtime monitoring of readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: The intertwining of behavioral, socioeconomic, and health factors; the difficulty of accessing appropriate care in the outpatient setting; the lack of clear financial incentives for health care providers to reduce readmissions; and the fragmentation of the current health care system warrant greater attention and more concerted efforts from all stakeholders to reduce Medicaid readmissions.

Information seeking from media and family/friends increases the likelihood of engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors.

The amount of cancer-related information available to the general population continues to grow; yet, its effects are unclear. This study extends previous cross-sectional research establishing that cancer information seeking across a variety of sources is extensive and positively associated with engaging in health-related behaviors. The authors studied how active information seeking about cancer prevention influenced three healthy lifestyle behaviors using a 2-round nationally representative sample of adults ages 40-70 years (n = 1,795), using propensity scoring to control for potential confounders including baseline behavior. The adjusted odds of dieting at follow-up were 1.51 (95% CI: 1.05, 2.19) times higher for those who reported baseline seeking from media and interpersonal sources relative to nonseekers. Baseline seekers ate 0.59 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.91) more fruits and vegetable servings per day and exercised 0.36 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.60) more days per week at 1-year follow-up compared with nonseekers. The effects of seeking from media and friends/family on eating fruits and vegetables and exercising were independent of seeking from physicians. The authors offer several explanations for why information seeking predicts healthy lifestyle behaviors: information obtained motivates these behaviors; information sought teaches specific techniques; and the act of information seeking may reinforce a psychological commitment to dieting, eating fruits and vegetables, and exercising.

Seeking cancer-related information from media and family/friends increases fruit and vegetable consumption among cancer patients.

Previous research suggests positive effects of health information seeking on prevention behaviors such as diet, exercise, and fruit and vegetable consumption among the general population. The current study builds upon this research by examining the effect of cancer patients' active information seeking from media and (nonmedical) interpersonal sources on fruit and vegetable consumption. The results of this longitudinal study are based on data collected from a randomly drawn sample from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, comprising breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer patients who completed mail surveys in the fall of 2006 and 2007. There was a 65% response rate for baseline subjects (resulting n = 2013); of those, 1,293 were interviewed one year later and 845 were available for final analyses. We used multiple imputation to replace missing data and propensity scoring to adjust for effects of possible confounders. There is a positive effect of information seeking at baseline on fruit and vegetable servings at follow-up; seekers consumed 0.43 (95% CI: 0.28 to 0.58) daily servings more than nonseekers adjusting for baseline consumption and other confounders. Active information seeking from media and interpersonal sources may lead to improved nutrition among the cancer patient population.

How does patient-clinician information engagement influence self-reported cancer-related problems?: findings from a longitudinal analysis.

BACKGROUND: Past research has linked patient-physician communication with improved emotional, physical, and social health. One component of communication, patient-clinician information engagement (PCIE), predicts improved short-term patient-reported outcomes, such as treatment satisfaction, through perceptions of feeling informed. However, to the authors' knowledge, the relation between PCIE and longer term cancer-related problems has not been examined previously. The authors examined the influence of PCIE on self-reported problems associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment based on a longitudinal survey among a randomly selected sample from the 2005 Pennsylvania Cancer Registry. METHODS: In total, 1293 respondents were surveyed who were diagnosed with colorectal, breast, or prostate cancers during 2006 and 2007. The baseline response rate was 64%, and the retention rate was 65%. The authors predicted an index of cancer-related problems at 1-year follow-up with the baseline cancer-related problem index and PCIE, controlling for demographic and clinical factors using regression analyses. The mean age of participants was 65 years, approximately 50% were women, and 86% were white. RESULTS: Having more cancer-related problems and PCIE at baseline significantly predicted more cancer-related problems at follow-up. In addition, baseline cancer-related problems and PCIE interacted significantly (P = .01): PCIE was associated with more cancer-related problems at follow-up among participants who reported more symptoms rather than fewer symptoms at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: If respondents reported engaging more with their physicians at baseline, then they reported experiencing more cancer-related issues at follow-up; this pattern was stronger among those who reported more baseline problems. The current results indicated that increased discussion of cancer information with physicians may maintain the salience of these problems in cancer survivors' minds over time.