Factors Related to Physician Clinical Decision-Making for African-American and Hispanic Patients: a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Breathett K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6123298 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Factors Related to Physician Clinical Decision-Making for African-American and Hispanic Patients: a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis.
Breathett Khadijah K Jones Jacqueline J Lum Hillary D HD Koonkongsatian Dawn D Jones Christine D CD Sanghvi Urvi U Hoffecker Lilian L McEwen Marylyn M Daugherty Stacie L SL Blair Irene V IV Calhoun Elizabeth E de Groot Esther E Sweitzer Nancy K NK Peterson Pamela N PN
Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities 20180305 6
Clinical decision-making may have a role in racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare but has not been evaluated systematically. The purpose of this study was to synthesize qualitative studies that explore various aspects of how a patient's African-American race or Hispanic ethnicity may factor into physician clinical decision-making. Using Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library, we identified 13 manuscripts that met inclusion criteria of usage of qualitative methods; addressed US physicia ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:End-of-life decisions are frequently made by patients' surrogates. Race and ethnicity may affect such decision making. Few studies have described how different racial/ethnic groups experience end-of-life surrogate decision making.To describe the self-reported experience the self-reported experience of African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic surrogate decision makers of seriously ill patients and to examine the relationship of race, ethnicity, and culture to that experience.Purposive sample to include racial/ethnic minorities in a qualitative study using focus group interviews.The participants of the study were 44 experienced, mostly female, surrogate decision makers for older veterans.Transcripts were qualitatively analyzed to identify major themes, with particular attention to themes that might be unique to each of the three groups.The experience of burden of end-of-life decision making was similar in all three groups. This burden in its medical, personal, and familial dimensions is compounded by uncertainty about prognosis and the patient's preferences. Racial/ethnic variations of responses to this burden concerned the physician-family relationship, religion and faith, and past experiences with race/ethnicity concordant versus non-concordant physicians.Regardless of race/ethnicity, surrogates for seriously ill patients appeared to experience increased significant, multidimensional burdens of decision making under conditions of uncertainty about a patient's preferences. This aspect of the burden of surrogate decision making may not be fully appreciated by physicians. Physicians should identify and be especially attentive to strategies used by surrogates, which may vary by race/ethnicity, to reduce the uncertainty about a patient's preferences and thus the burden of surrogate decision making to assist them in this difficult process.
| S-EPMC2359470 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundPatients with multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity) and additional psychosocial complexity are at higher risk of adverse outcomes. Establishing treatment or care plans for these patients must account for their disease interactions, finite self-management abilities, and even conflicting treatment recommendations from clinical practice guidelines. Despite existing insight into how primary care physicians (PCPs) approach care decisions for their patients in general, less is known about how PCPs make care planning decisions for more complex populations particularly within a medical home setting. We therefore sought to describe factors affecting physician decision-making when care planning for complex patients with multimorbidity within the team-based, patient-centered medical home setting in the integrated healthcare system of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).MethodsThis was a qualitative study involving semi-structured telephone interviews with PCPs working > 40% time in VHA clinics. Interviews were conducted from April to July, 2020. Content was analyzed with deductive and inductive thematic analysis.Results23 physicians participated in interviews; most were MDs (n = 21) and worked in hospital-affiliated clinics (n = 14) across all regions of the VHA's national clinic network. We found internal, external, and relationship-based factors, with developed subthemes describing factors affecting decision-making for complex patients with multimorbidity. Physicians described tailoring decisions to individual patients; making decisions in keeping with an underlying internal style or habit; working towards an overarching goal for care; considering impacts from patient access and resources on care plans; deciding within boundaries provided by organizational structures; collaborating on care plans with their care team; and impacts on decisions from their own emotions and relationship with patient.ConclusionsPCPs described internal, external, and relationship-based factors that affected their care planning for high-risk and complex patients with multimorbidity in the VHA. Findings offer useful strategies employed by physicians to effectively conduct care planning for complex patients in a medical home setting, such as delegation of follow-up within multidisciplinary care teams, optimizing visit time vs frequency, and deliberate investment in patient-centered relationship building to gain buy-in to care plans.
| S-EPMC8817776 | biostudies-literature
Project description:RationalePulmonologists frequently encounter indeterminate pulmonary nodules in practice, but it is unclear what clinical factors they rely on to guide the diagnostic evaluation.ObjectivesTo assess the current approach to the management of indeterminate pulmonary nodules and to determine the extent to which the addition of a hypothetical diagnostic blood test will influence clinical decision making.MethodsSelected pulmonologists practicing in the United States were invited to participate in a conjoint exercise based on 20 randomly generated cases of varying age, smoking history, and nodule size. Some cases included the result of a hypothetical blood test. Each respondent chose from among three diagnostic options for a patient: noninvasive monitoring (i.e., serial CT or positron emission tomography scan), a minor procedure (i.e., biopsy or bronchoscopy), or a major procedure (i.e., video-assisted thorascopic surgery or thoracotomy). Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the impact of the three risk factors and the diagnostic blood test on decision making.Measurements and main resultsFour hundred nineteen physicians participated (response rate, 10%). One hundred fifty-three physician surveys met predetermined criteria and were analyzed (4% of all invitees). A diagnostic procedure was recommended for 23% of 6-mm nodules, versus 54, 66, 77, and 84% of nodules 10, 14, 18, and 22 mm, respectively (P?<?0.001). Older age limited recommendations for invasive testing: 54% of 80-year-olds versus 61, 64, 63, and 61% of patients 71, 62, 53, and 44 years of age, respectively (P?<?0.001). In multivariate analyses, nodule size, smoking history, age, and the blood test each influenced decision making (P?<?0.001).ConclusionsThe pulmonologists who participated in this survey were more likely to proceed with invasive testing, instead of observation or additional imaging, as the size of the nodule increased. The use of a hypothetical blood test resulted in significant alterations in the decision to pursue invasive testing.
| S-EPMC5475427 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Guidelines and Class 1 evidence are strong factors that help guide surgeons' decision-making, but dilemmas exist in selecting the best surgical option, usually without the benefit of guidelines or Class 1 evidence. A few studies have discussed the variability of surgical treatment options that are currently available, but no study has examined surgeons' views on the influential factors that encourage them to choose one surgical treatment over another. This study examines the influential factors and the thought process that encourage surgeons to make these decisions in such circumstances. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 32 senior consultant surgeons, surgical fellows, and senior surgical residents at the University of Toronto teaching hospitals. An e-mail was sent out for volunteers, and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and subjected to thematic analysis using open and axial coding. Broadly speaking there are five groups of factors affecting surgeons' decision-making: medical condition, information, institutional, patient, and surgeon factors. When information factors such as guidelines and Class 1 evidence are lacking, the other four groups of factors-medical condition, institutional, patient, and surgeon factors (the last-mentioned likely being the most powerful)-play a significant role in guiding surgical decision-making. This study is the first qualitative study on surgeons' perspectives on the influential factors that help them choose one surgical treatment option over another for their patients.
| S-EPMC5796734 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeTo identify the most important factors affecting physician decision-making regarding antiplatelet therapy.MethodsWe retrospectively gathered data from minor ischemic stroke patients with NIHSS scores ≤ 5 within 72 h of onset from 2010 to 2018. The population was divided into four groups by initial antiplatelet therapy: aspirin monotherapy (AM), dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a loading dose of clopidogrel (clopidogrel loading dose of 300 mg on the first day; DAPT-ALC), dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and no loading dose of clopidogrel (clopidogrel 75 mg daily, no loading dose; DAPT-AUC), and clopidogrel monotherapy (CM).ResultsIn total, 1,377 patients were included in the analysis (excluding patients who accepted thrombolytic drugs, participated in other clinical trials, or had not used antiplatelet drugs). The mean ± S.D. age was 62.0 ± 12.7 years; 973 (70.7%) patients were male. The four groups were AM (n = 541, 39.3%), DAPT-ALC (n = 474, 34.4%), DAPT- AUC (n = 301, 21.9%), and CM (n = 61, 4.4%). Patients receiving antiplatelet monotherapy were older than those receiving dual antiplatelet therapy (63.7-65.7 vs. 59.6-61.4 years), and the median initial systolic blood pressure level was higher in the DAPT-ALC group than in the other groups (all P < 0.05). Patients under 75 years old with an admission SBP lower than 180 mmHg, a history of AM, coronary heart disease, no history of intracerebral hemorrhage, stroke onset occurring after guideline recommendations were updated (the year of 2015), onset-to-arrival time within 24 h, and initial NIHSS score ≤ 3 were more likely to take DAPT-ALC than AM. Compared with DAPT-ALC, DAPT-AUC was associated with an initial SBP level lower than 180 mmHg, a history of smoking, hypertension, no history of ICH, previous treatment with antihypertensives, and onset year after the recommendations were updated.ConclusionsMany factors affect doctors' decisions regarding antiplatelet therapy, especially guidelines, age, admission SBP level, and hypertensive disease.
| S-EPMC9477012 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundFollowing passage of the Patient Self Determination Act in 1990, health care institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding are required to inform patients of their right to make their health care preferences known through execution of a living will and/or to appoint a surrogate-decision maker. We evaluated the impact of external factors and perceived patient preferences on physicians' decisions to honor or forgo previously established advance directives (ADs). In addition, physician views regarding legal risk, patients' ability to comprehend complexities involved with their care, and impact of medical costs related to end-of-life care decisions were explored.MethodsAttendees of two Mayo Clinic continuing medical education courses were surveyed. Three scenarios based in part on previously court-litigated matters assessed impact of external factors and perceived patient preferences on physician compliance with patient-articulated wishes regarding resuscitation. General questions measured respondents' perception of legal risk, concerns over patient knowledge of idiosyncrasies involved with their care, and impact medical costs may have on compliance with patient preferences. Responses indicating strength of agreement or disagreement with statements were treated as ordinal data and analyzed using the Cochran Armitage trend test.ResultsThree hundred eighty-eight of 951 surveys were completed (41% response rate). Eighty percent reported they were likely to honor a patient's AD despite its 5 year age. Fewer than half (41%) would honor the AD of a patient in ventricular fibrillation who had expressed a desire to "pass away in peace." Few (17%) would forgo an AD following a family's request for continued resuscitative treatment. A majority (52%) considered risk of liability to be lower when maintaining someone alive against their wishes than mistakenly failing to provide resuscitative efforts. A large percentage (74%) disagreed that patients could not appreciate complexities surrounding their care while 69% agreed that costs should never impact a physician's decision as to whether to comply with a patient's AD.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the impact, albeit small, external factors have on physician AD compliance. Most respondents based their decision on the clinical situation at hand and interpretation of the patient's initial wishes and preferences expressed by the AD.
| S-EPMC3528447 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study seeks to identify factors that are associated with decisions of prehospital physicians to start (continue, if ongoing) or withhold (terminate, if ongoing) CPR in patients with OHCA. We conducted a retrospective study using anonymised data from a prehospital physician response system. Data on patients attended for cardiac arrest between January 1st, 2010 and December 31st, 2018 except babies at birth were included. Logistic regression analysis with start of CPR by physicians as the dependent variable and possible associated factors as independent variables adjusted for anonymised physician identifiers was conducted. 1525 patient data sets were analysed. Obvious signs of death were present in 278 cases; in the remaining 1247, resuscitation was attempted in 920 (74%) and were withheld in 327 (26%). Factors significantly associated with higher likelihood of CPR by physicians (OR 95% CI) were resuscitation efforts by EMS before physician arrival (60.45, 19.89-184.29), first monitored heart rhythm (3.07, 1.21-7.79 for PEA; 29.25, 1.93-442. 51 for VF / pVT compared to asystole); advanced patient age (modelled using cubic splines), physician response time (0.92, 0.87-0.97 per minute) and malignancy (0.22, 0.05-0.92) were significantly associated with lower odds of CPR. We thus conclude that prehospital physicians make decisions to start or withhold resuscitation routinely and base those mostly on situational information and immediately available patient information known to impact outcomes.
| S-EPMC7933171 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundGoal attainment of guideline-recommended low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is suboptimal. Little is known about how patient factors influence physicians' treatment decision-making in hypercholesterolemia. We examined physicians' treatment recommendations in high-risk patients whose LDL-C remained uncontrolled despite statin monotherapy.MethodsPhysicians completed a questionnaire prior to randomization into period I of a two-period randomized controlled trial evaluating LDL-C goal attainment in patients whose LDL-C remained ≥100 mg/dL after 5 weeks' treatment with atorvastatin 10 mg/day (NCT01154036). Physicians' treatment recommendations were surveyed for two hypothetical and one real scenario: (1) LDL-C presumed near goal (between 100-105 mg/dL), (2) LDL-C presumed far from goal (~120 mg/dL), and (3) observed baseline LDL-C of enrolled patients. Prognostic factors considered during decision-making were identified by regression analysis. Observed lipid outcomes at the end of period I (following 6 weeks' treatment with ezetimibe 10 mg plus atorvastatin 10 mg, atorvastatin 20 mg, or rosuvastatin 10 mg) were compared with estimated LDL-C outcomes for physicians' treatment recommendations after 6 weeks (based on individual patients' pre-randomization LDL-C and expected incremental change).ResultsQuestionnaires were completed for 1,534 patients. No change in therapy, or double atorvastatin dose, were frequently recommended, even when LDL-C was far from goal (6.5% and 52.2% of patients, respectively). Double atorvastatin dose was commonly recommended in all scenarios (43-52% of patients). More intensive LDL-C-lowering regimens were recommended infrequently e.g. double atorvastatin dose and add ezetimibe only <12% in all scenarios. Overall, cardiovascular risk factors and desire to achieve a more aggressive LDL-C goal were prominent factors in decision-making for treatment. Comparison of observed and estimated LDL-C levels showed that physicians tended to overestimate the effectiveness of their recommendations.ConclusionsThis study provides insight into physicians' perspectives on clinical management of hypercholesterolemia and highlights a gap in knowledge translation from guidelines to clinical practice. The need for lower LDL-C and cardiovascular risk were key drivers in clinical decision-making, but physicians' treatment choices were more conservative than guideline recommendations, potentially resulting in poorer LDL-C reduction. When compared with actual outcomes, projected LDL-C control was better if physicians used more comprehensive strategies rather than simply doubling the statin dose.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov: NCT01154036.
| S-EPMC4457981 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundLess than 1% of severely obese US adults undergo bariatric surgery annually. It is critical to understand the factors that contribute to its utilization.ObjectivesTo understand how primary care physicians (PCPs) make decisions regarding severe obesity treatment and bariatric surgery referral.SettingFocus groups with PCPs practicing in small, medium, and large cities in Wisconsin.MethodsPCPs were asked to discuss prioritization of treatment for a severely obese patient with multiple co-morbidities and considerations regarding bariatric surgery referral. Focus group sessions were analyzed by using a directed approach to content analysis. A taxonomy of consensus codes was developed. Code summaries were created and representative quotes identified.ResultsSixteen PCPs participated in 3 focus groups. Four treatment prioritization approaches were identified: (1) treat the disease that is easiest to address; (2) treat the disease that is perceived as the most dangerous; (3) let the patient set the agenda; and (4) address obesity first because it is the common denominator underlying other co-morbid conditions. Only the latter approach placed emphasis on obesity treatment. Five factors made PCPs hesitate to refer patients for bariatric surgery: (1) wanting to "do no harm"; (2) questioning the long-term effectiveness of bariatric surgery; (3) limited knowledge about bariatric surgery; (4) not wanting to recommend bariatric surgery too early; and (5) not knowing if insurance would cover bariatric surgery.ConclusionDecision making by PCPs for severely obese patients seems to underprioritize obesity treatment and overestimate bariatric surgery risks. This could be addressed with PCP education and improvements in communication between PCPs and bariatric surgeons.
| S-EPMC8356198 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The objective of this study was to investigate whether differences in admixture in African-American (AFA) and Hispanic-American (HA) adult women are associated with adiposity and adipose distribution.The proportion of European, sub-Saharan African and Amerindian admixture was estimated for AFA and HA women in the Women's Heath Initiative using 92 ancestry informative markers. Analyses assessed the relationship between admixture and adiposity indices.The subjects included 11?712 AFA and 5088 HA self-identified post-menopausal women.There was a significant positive association between body mass index (BMI) and African admixture when BMI was considered as a continuous variable, and age, education, physical activity, parity, family income and smoking were included covariates (P<10(-4)). A dichotomous model (upper and lower BMI quartiles) showed that African admixture was associated with a high odds ratio (OR=3.27 (for 100% admixture compared with 0% admixture), 95% confidence interval 2.08-5.15). For HA, there was no association between BMI and admixture. In contrast, when waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was used as a measure of adipose distribution, there was no significant association between WHR and admixture in AFA but there was a strong association in HA (P<10(-4); OR Amerindian admixture=5.93, confidence interval=3.52-9.97).These studies show that: (1) African admixture is associated with BMI in AFA women; (2) Amerindian admixture is associated with WHR but not BMI in HA women; and (3) it may be important to consider different measurements of adiposity and adipose distribution in different ethnic population groups.
| S-EPMC3137678 | biostudies-literature