Study protocol for investigating racial disparities in pain care: a comprehensive integration of patient-level and provider-level mechanisms with dyadic communication processes using a mixed-methods research design

Introduction
Although many efforts have been made to reduce racial pain disparities over decades, the pain of black patients is still undertreated. Previous work has identified a host of patient and provider factors that contribute to racial disparities in healthcare in general, and consequently, may contribute to disparities in pain care in particular. That said, there has been limited clinically meaningful progress in eliminating these disparities. This lack of progress is likely because prior research has investigated the influence of patient and provider factors in isolation, rather than examining their interaction. Successful pain care requires constructive patient-provider communication, and constructive communication is both dyadic and dynamic. One well-accepted operationalisation of such dyadic processes is behavioural coordination. We hypothesise that the pain of black patients continues to be undertreated because black patients are more likely than white patients to participate in racially discordant medical interactions (ie, seeing other-race providers) and experience disruptions in behavioural coordination. We further hypothesise that disruptions in behavioural coordination will reflect patient and provider factors identified in prior research. We propose to test these hypotheses in the planned surgical context.

Methods and analysis
Using a convergent mixed methods research design, we will collect data from at least 15 surgeons and their 150 patients (approximately equal number of black and white patients per surgeon). The data sources will include one surgeon survey, four patient surveys, video- and/or audio-recordings of preoperative consultations and medical chart reviews. The recorded preoperative consultations will be analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively to assess the magnitude and pattern of behavioural coordination between patients and surgeons. Those data will be linked to survey data and data from medical chart reviews to test our hypotheses.

Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval has been obtained from the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board (HM20023574). Findings will be disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals and speaking engagements with clinician stakeholders. We will also share the main findings from this project with patients via a newsletter on completion of the entire project.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Study protocol for investigating racial disparities in pain care: a comprehensive integration of patient-level and provider-level mechanisms with dyadic communication processes using a mixed-methods research design

Introduction
Although many efforts have been made to reduce racial pain disparities over decades, the pain of black patients is still undertreated. Previous work has identified a host of patient and provider factors that contribute to racial disparities in healthcare in general, and consequently, may contribute to disparities in pain care in particular. That said, there has been limited clinically meaningful progress in eliminating these disparities. This lack of progress is likely because prior research has investigated the influence of patient and provider factors in isolation, rather than examining their interaction. Successful pain care requires constructive patient-provider communication, and constructive communication is both dyadic and dynamic. One well-accepted operationalisation of such dyadic processes is behavioural coordination. We hypothesise that the pain of black patients continues to be undertreated because black patients are more likely than white patients to participate in racially discordant medical interactions (ie, seeing other-race providers) and experience disruptions in behavioural coordination. We further hypothesise that disruptions in behavioural coordination will reflect patient and provider factors identified in prior research. We propose to test these hypotheses in the planned surgical context.

Methods and analysis
Using a convergent mixed methods research design, we will collect data from at least 15 surgeons and their 150 patients (approximately equal number of black and white patients per surgeon). The data sources will include one surgeon survey, four patient surveys, video- and/or audio-recordings of preoperative consultations and medical chart reviews. The recorded preoperative consultations will be analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively to assess the magnitude and pattern of behavioural coordination between patients and surgeons. Those data will be linked to survey data and data from medical chart reviews to test our hypotheses.

Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval has been obtained from the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board (HM20023574). Findings will be disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals and speaking engagements with clinician stakeholders. We will also share the main findings from this project with patients via a newsletter on completion of the entire project.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Clinical prediction tools for patient-reported outcomes in gastrointestinal cancer: a scoping review protocol

Background
Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are among the most significant contributors to the global cancer burden, causing substantial physical and emotional distress. Effective management of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is essential for enhancing quality of life and overall survival in cancer care. Despite significant advances in cancer care, understanding PROs and their integration into clinical practice remains limited. Prediction models for PROs have the potential to support patient-centred care by improving shared decision-making and informing care plans. However, the development and application of clinical tools that predict PROs in patients with GI cancer have not been systematically explored. This scoping review aims to explore clinical prediction tools for PROs and the quality of life in patients with GI cancer, identifying current tools, predictors and outcomes, as well as evaluating their clinical usability and equity considerations.

Methods and analysis
A scoping review methodology, guided by the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and the Arksey and O’Malley framework, will be used. The review will include studies of adult patients with primary GI cancer that developed or validated clinical prediction tools for PROs or quality of life. Inclusion criteria require the use of self-reported PRO measures. A systematic search of Ovid Medline, Embase and CINAHL will be conducted from 1946 to 2024. The search strategy will be updated periodically to incorporate the most recent literature and complemented by hand-searching references. Data extraction will focus on tool characteristics, predictors, statistical methods and equity considerations. The findings will be synthesised descriptively, mapping trends, identifying gaps and highlighting areas for future research.

Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval is not required for this literature-based study. Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conferences and patient advocacy networks to maximise the impact on research, policy and clinical practice.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Patient-centered outcomes on preparing for and undergoing gender-affirming phalloplasty: a qualitative, descriptive study

Objective
Despite increasing incidence of genital gender-affirming surgery (GGAS), there is no systematic method of evaluating patient perspectives. The objective of this study is to elucidate transgender and non-binary patient perspectives on gender-affirming phalloplasty/metoidioplasty via structured focus groups and determine convergent themes as the first step towards the development of a GGAS patient-reported outcome measure.

Design
We conducted a systematic qualitative study using a thematic content analysis of four focus groups from April 2021 to April 2022 comprising 8 patients undergoing phalloplasty/metoidioplasty and 10 patients post-phalloplasty/metoidioplasty. Focus groups were hosted virtually and recorded and transcribed. Discussions were guided by participant input and focused on goals, experiences, outcomes, satisfaction, and quality of life.

Setting
This volunteer but purposive sample of patients was recruited directly in clinic, via email, and via social media at NYU Langone Health (primary site), Callen-Lorde Community Health Center (New York, New York, USA) and the San Francisco Community Health Center.

Participants
We conducted focus groups with 18 patients before/after undergoing gender-affirming phalloplasty/metoidioplasty.

Primary and secondary outcome measurements and statistical analysis
Transcripts were uploaded into ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data analysis software that facilitates coding for thematic content analysis. We performed deductive and inductive coding to identify the themes that were clustered into overarching domains.

Results
The mean duration of focus groups was 81.5 min. Seven themes and 19 subthemes were constructed. The major themes were (1) goals, expectations, and priorities before/after surgery; (2) sexual function; (3) urinary function; (4) peer support; (5) decision-making; (6) mental health and quality of life; and (7) gender dysphoria. Of the major themes, those determined before the study included themes 1–3 and 6–7. Limitations include small sample size and bias in patient selection.

Conclusions
We conducted focus groups with 18 patients before/after undergoing gender-affirming phalloplasty/metoidioplasty. Mental health, quality of life, functional, and aesthetic outcomes are all critical to patients. Phalloplasty/metoidioplasty impact numerous aspects of patients’ lives. Experiential components of the surgical process, mental health, and quality of life are important metrics to consider in addition to functional and aesthetic outcomes.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Impact of stroke severity on aspiration pneumonia risks in the medical ward versus the stroke unit: a 10-year retrospective cohort study

Objective
Aspiration pneumonia is a common complication post-stroke that increases the patient’s duration of stay in hospital, mortality and morbidity. We examined the incidence, clinical characteristics and outcomes among ischaemic stroke-related aspiration pneumonia patients in Qatar.

Settings and participants
The Qatar Stroke database was reviewed for patients with acute ischaemic stroke admitted to Hamad General Hospital, a tertiary care medical facility, between January 2014 and April 2024.

Outcomes
Patients were retrospectively assessed for mortality at 90 days, modified Rankin Score at 90 days and length of stay. Several clinical characteristics were also compared between patients with acute ischaemic stroke who developed aspiration pneumonia versus those without.

Results
Patients with stroke who developed aspiration pneumonia tended to be older and of the male sex. Patients who developed aspiration pneumonia were also more likely to present with a higher National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at admission (p10). They were also more likely to have higher mortality rates at 90 days (16.9% vs 1.9% for an NIHSS admission score of 5–9 and 22.3% vs 13.8% for an NIHSS admission score >10) and major adverse cardiovascular events at 1 year (23.7% vs 3.8% for an NIHSS admission score of 5–9 and 27.5% vs 16.2% for NIHSS >10).

Conclusion
Age, sex, admission NIHSS severity, stroke subtypes and admission location are independent predictors of aspiration pneumonia post-stroke.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Exploring patient engagement in atrial fibrillation with multimorbidity: impact on quality of life, medication adherence and healthcare perceptions–a multicountry cross-sectional study

Objective
To examine patient engagement (PE) levels of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with multimorbidity, to identify distinct personas based on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, as well as engagement levels, and to compare PE in disease management with health-related quality of life, medication adherence, and perceptions of care quality.

Design
A cross-sectional survey.

Setting
Data were collected through an online survey platform between 31 May 2022 and 31 January 2023 from five European countries (Denmark, Italy, Romania, Spain and the UK).

Participants
The study involved 659 AF patients older than 18 years who were diagnosed with one or more concomitant chronic health conditions.

Primary and secondary outcome measures
The survey focused on identifying the needs and quality performance indicators (QPIs) of patients. Emotional engagement was evaluated using the Patient Health Engagement Scale (PHE-s), and cognitive-behavioural engagement was assessed using the Altarum Consumer Engagement Measure (ACE). Engagement scores of each measure were grouped as high or low and compared by age group, sex, level of education and country of recruitment, health-related quality of life, medication adherence and perception of care quality using 2 and Mann-Whitney U tests (p

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Systematic review and meta-analysis protocol of patient-centred interventions for sustained viral suppression among patients on antiretroviral therapy in South Africa

Background
Sustained viral suppression is critical not only for ensuring long and healthy livelihoods among the people who are living with Human immunodefficiency virus (HIV), but it is also crucial for prevention of new infections of HIV perinatally and to HIV negative sexual partners through unsafe sex. Available data, however, suggest that some of the patients who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) fail to maintain the suppressed state once they have achieved it, with others reporting subsequent episodes of viral rebound following resuppression. The association of depression, social issues including day-to-day routine and stigma with poor adherence inadvertently calls for the formulation of intervention strategies that are patient centric. The proposed systematic review and meta-analysis study will identify studies of intervention strategies that are in place to address viral suppression and viral rebound among HIV positive patients who are on ART.

Methods and analysis
The proposed study will conduct a systematic search of peer-reviewed articles through PubMed, Scopus and EBSCOhost databases. Data collection will occur in March 2025. The reviewers will include studies if they were published in South Africa, between 2013 and 2024, and if they were observational in design and written in English. Identified articles will be exported onto Rayyan software where processes of de-duplication and screening by two independent reviewers will be performed. A meta-analysis of data will be conducted on Stata 17 software using the random effects model. The results will be generated in a table and displayed graphically in a forest plot which will indicate type of study, type of intervention, point effect size and the corresponding 95% CI, weight per cent contributed by each study to the pooled estimate, pooled estimate and the 95% CI and measures of heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis will be performed to identify the source of heterogeneity. Publication bias will be assessed by funnel plot and the Egger’s asymmetry test.

Ethics and dissemination
The study protocol has obtained ethical clearance from the ethics committee of Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMUREC/H/31/2024:PG). As this will be a systematic review study, involving no human participants, informed consent will not be required. However, for integrity, the findings will be prepared and disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publication and in various media, including conferences, congresses or symposia.

PROSPERO registration number
CRD42024532244.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Qualitative exploration of patient and caregiver experiences of bowel cancer care in Wales: from diagnosis to aftercare

Introduction
Wales has higher rates of bowel cancer incidence and mortality than other UK nations, with over 2300 new cases and 900 deaths annually. Regional disparities in bowel cancer mortality underscore the need for a better understanding of patient experiences of bowel cancer care in Wales as well as exploring potential areas for improvement. This evaluation aimed to explore the experiences of individuals with a history of bowel cancer and their caregivers in Wales, UK, examining diagnosis, treatment and aftercare. The study also explored patient and caregiver recommendations to inform potential improvements in service delivery, addressing the gaps in quality and accessibility of bowel cancer care across Wales.

Methods
This qualitative mixed-methods study used a combination of online surveys, interviews and focus groups to explore the experiences of individuals with bowel cancer and their caregivers in Wales. 71 survey responses were received, of which 23 individual interviews and 3 focus groups with 19 participants were conducted. Interviews and focus groups followed semistructured topic guides using a grounded theory methodology, with manual iterative coding of transcripts to identify themes and subthemes.

Setting
Focusing on people with a history of bowel cancer, and their caregivers, who had received bowel cancer care from the Welsh National Health Service.

Results
Thematic analysis of interview and focus group transcripts uncovered a central theme highlighting the role of effective communication in ensuring high-quality bowel cancer care. Four subthemes emerged from the data: (a) suspicion to diagnosis, which revealed barriers to early detection and the effects of miscommunication; (b) disparities and decision-making in treatment access, where geographic and socio-economic differences affected treatment and support options; (c) communication and coordination of care, emphasising gaps in the continuity of care; and (d) life after cancer, identifying unmet needs for sustained support post-treatment. Several potential areas for improvement to bowel cancer care in Wales were also suggested, including changes to bowel screening eligibility, empowering shared decision-making, tailoring support services for younger individuals with bowel cancer and improving aftercare support.

Conclusions
This study highlighted a perceived ‘postcode lottery’ in bowel cancer care across Wales, with marked disparities between rural and urban areas. Findings advocate for targeted improvements to make care and support services more equitable and accessible across Wales.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Analysis of the patient-sharing network in hypertension management: a retrospective study in China

Objective
To explore the robustness of the patient-sharing network and validate the association between strength and persistence of physicians’ relationships in China.

Design, setting and participants
We conducted a patient-sharing network analysis to describe the persistence of patient-sharing relationships and logistic regression to analyse factors associating with the persistence of patient-sharing relationships in the Yinzhou Health Information System from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2018; all outpatient records that had a hypertension diagnosis were included in this study.

Outcome measures
The persistence ratio was defined as the proportion of the patient-sharing relationships in a given year that continued to exist in the following year, the 1-, 2- and 3-year persistence to test the robustness of the findings.

Results
This study included 3916 physicians from 42 public healthcare facilities in Yinzhou. The 1-year persistence ratio fluctuated around 80%, and the 3-year persistence ratio was around 60% over the study period. The strength of the relationship, tie characteristics and physician specialty were important factors associating with the persistence of the relationships. The persistence of the relationships increased significantly as the strength of the relationships increased (for relationships with strength [3, 5), OR=3.987, 95% CI 3.896 to 4.08; for relationships with strength [5, 7), OR=6.379, 95% CI 6.147 to 6.626; and for relationships with strength [7, 9), OR=8.373, 95% CI 7.941 to 8.829). Physicians from the same healthcare institution were more likely to form ties that persisted for at least 1 year compared with physicians from different institutions (OR=1.510, 95% CI 1.480 to 1.540).

Conclusions
Our study showed that physicians frequently formed relationships with other physicians through sharing patients in Yinzhou, China, and these relationships had similar rates of persistence to studies conducted in developed countries, which indicated that findings of social network analyses conducted in developed countries still hold value in developing countries.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Protocol for a scoping review of patient engagement in pharmacy practice research

Introduction
Over the last 20 years, the pharmacist’s role in healthcare has evolved, moving towards patient-centred care, collaboration and medication therapy management. Patient engagement in research is similarly being recognised as a transformative approach to healthcare due to its positive impact on outcomes and research relevance. However, patient engagement in pharmacy practice research is nascent. Therefore, we present a protocol for a scoping review to map the current state of patient engagement in pharmacy practice research, identifying its extent, range, nature, barriers, facilitators, impacts and gaps.

Methods and analysis
This protocol was developed in collaboration with persons with lived experience (PWLE). The scoping review will be conducted using established methodological frameworks and guided by the Best Practice Guidance and Reporting Items for the Development of Scoping Review Protocols and the Guidance for Reporting Involvement of Patients and the Public (GRIPP2) checklists. A comprehensive search involving three large databases, Medline (Ovid; 1946–Present), Embase (Ovid; 1974–Present) and Scopus (Elsevier), grey literature sources, forward and backward reference checking and consultation will be completed to retrieve the relevant literature. We will include published and unpublished research related to pharmacy practice that adopts patient engagement in research approach. Full-text screening will occur to determine eligibility for inclusion. Data will then be charted using a comprehensive extraction form. Qualitative data will be synthesised using basic qualitative content analysis, and quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive statistics. Regular meetings with PWLE and the research team will guide data analysis, interpretation and dissemination.

Ethics and dissemination
Ethics approval was not required for this protocol as we did not collect participant data. Findings may be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, social media and knowledge user meetings, as informed by the perspectives of PWLE. Knowledge gained from this review will inform the development of strategies that support patient engagement, advance pharmacy practice research and have the potential to improve health outcomes and patient experiences.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

10-year diagnosis-specific antibiotic prescribing trends among paediatric inpatients at two private-sector hospitals in central India: a prospective observational study

Objectives
To analyse, compare and present the 10-year diagnosis-specific antibiotic prescribing trends for paediatric inpatients at a non-teaching hospital (NTH) and a teaching hospital (TH) in India.

Design and setting
A prospective, observational study of antibiotic prescriptions in paediatric departments of two private-sector hospitals in central India. Inpatients were grouped into clinically confirmed infections, suspected infections and no infections.

Outcomes
Patients in the NTH and TH and duration of antibiotic prescription, the ratio of prescribed daily dose and defined daily dose i.e. PDD* per 100 bed days, diagnosis-specific patterns and trends, adherence to the Access, Watch and Reserve (AWaRe) classification and prescribing guidelines with significant p value

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Research quality and dissemination of paediatric randomised controlled trials with and without patient and family engagement: systematic review

Objectives
Authentic patient and family engagement in child health research is defined as researchers working in partnership with patients and families on all aspects of the research process, including refining the research question, tailoring the intervention, devising study procedures and disseminating study findings. While there is good evidence of a positive impact of patient engagement on the research process, on research teams and on patient partners, there are few empirical data on the impact of patient and family engagement on research quality and dissemination. We conducted a systematic review to compare research quality and dissemination metrics for paediatric randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that engaged patients and families in the research process with trials that did not.

Design
Systematic review using the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search to identify RCTs.

Data sources
Ovid MEDLINE from 1 January 2011 through to 31 December 2020.

Eligibility criteria
We included RCTs involving children and youth (

Leggi
Marzo 2025