Erasing inequality: Examining discrepancies between electronic health records and patient narratives to uncover perceived stigma and dismissal in clinical encounters.

Current policy efforts to reduce health disparities focus on integrating patients' social determinants of health (SDHs) into their electronic health records (EHRs), with the goal of addressing both clinical and social risks through the health system. Yet clinicians' documentation of and engagement with patients' social characteristics may, in certain circumstances, actually contribute to health disparities. This paper compares accounts of clinical encounters from in-depth interviews with forty-six non-college-educated women against their EHR's codes and free-text notes, which document the clinician's perspective of the encounter. We identify how documentation of clinical encounters may exacerbate the very health disparities that health systems seek to intervene upon by 1) translating social suffering stemming from structural inequality into stigmatized risk factors, and 2) suppressing conflicts over diagnosis and treatment, sometimes by framing observations of women's social identities as evidence of their unreliability as patients. We demonstrate how perceived negative interactions lead some women to resist the health system, either by self-treating in ways that could adversely affect their health or by attempting to challenge the authority of clinicians, which is not documented as resistance in their medical charts.

Linking Electronic Health Records and In-Depth Interviews to Inform Efforts to Integrate Social Determinants of Health Into Health Care Delivery: Protocol for a Qualitative Research Study.

BACKGROUND: Health systems are attempting to capture social determinants of health (SDoH) in electronic health records (EHR) and use these data to adjust care plans. To date, however, methods for identifying social needs, which are the SDoH prioritized by patients, have been underexplored, and there is little guidance as to how clinicians should act on SDoH data when caring for patients. Moreover, the unintended consequences of collecting and responding to SDoH are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to use two data sources, EHR data and patient interviews, to describe divergences between the EHR and patient experiences that could help identify gaps in the documentation of SDoH in the EHR; highlight potential missed opportunities for addressing social needs, and identify unintended consequences of efforts to integrate SDoH into clinical care. METHODS: We are conducting a qualitative study that merges discrete and free-text data from EHRs with in-depth interviews with women residing in rural, socioeconomically deprived communities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Participants had to confirm that they had at least one visit with the large health system that serves the region. Interviews with the women included questions regarding health, interaction with the health system, and social needs. Next, with consent, we extracted discrete data (eg, diagnoses and medication orders) for each participant and free-text clinician notes from this health system's EHRs between 1996 and the year of the interview. We used a standardized protocol to create an EHR narrative, a free-text summary of the EHR data. We used NVivo to identify themes in the interviews and the EHR narratives. RESULTS: To date, we have interviewed 88 women, including 51 White women, 19 Black women, 14 Latina women, 2 mixed Black and Latina women, and 2 Asian Pacific women. We have completed the EHR narratives on 66 women. The women range in age from 18 to 90 years. We found corresponding EHR data on all but 4 of the interview participants. Participants had contact with a wide range of clinical departments (eg, psychiatry, neurology, and infectious disease) and received care in various clinical settings (eg, primary care clinics, emergency departments, and inpatient hospitalizations). A preliminary review of the EHR narratives revealed that the clinician notes were a source of data on a range of SDoH but did not always reflect the social needs that participants described in the interviews. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide unique insight into the demands and consequences of integrating SDoH into clinical care. This work comes at a pivotal point in time, as health systems, payors, and policymakers accelerate attempts to deliver care within the context of social needs. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/36201.

Associations of Four Community Factors With Longitudinal Change in Hemoglobin A1c Levels in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations of community factors with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We identified patients with type 2 diabetes who had an HbA1c ≥7.5% (58 mmol/mol) and subsequent HbA1c testing within 90-270 days. We used mixed-effect models to assess whether treatment intensification (TI) and community domains (community socioeconomic deprivation [CSD], food availability, fitness assets, and utilitarian physical activity favorability [quartiled]) were associated with HbA1c change over 6 and 24 months, controlling for demographics, HbA1c, BMI, and time with evidence of type 2 diabetes. We evaluated whether community domains modified associations of TI with HbA1c change using cross product terms. RESULTS: There were 15,308 patients with 69,818 elevated HbA1c measures. The average reduction in HbA1c over 6 months was 0.07% less in townships with a high level of CSD (third quartile versus the first). Reductions were 0.10% greater for HbA1c in townships with the best food availability (versus worst). HbA1c reductions were 0.17-0.19% greater in census tracts in the second and third quartiles of utilitarian physical activity favorability versus the first. The association of TI with 6-month HbA1c change was weaker in townships and boroughs with the worst CSD (versus best) and in boroughs with the best fitness assets (versus worst). The association of TI with 24-month HbA1c change was weaker in census tracts with the worst CSD (versus third quartile) and strongest in census tracts most favorable for utilitarian physical activity (versus worst). CONCLUSIONS: Community domains were associated with HbA1c change and blunted TI effectiveness.

Two approaches, one problem: Cultural constructions of type II diabetes in an indigenous community in Yucatán, Mexico.

The emerging epidemic of obesity and type II diabetes in Mexico has recently propelled the nation into the public health spotlight. In the state of Yucatán, the experience of diabetes is greatly impacted by two cultural constructions of disease. In this setting, elements of Yucatec Mayan health practices as well as the biomedical model affect the approach to type II diabetes. Both frameworks offer unique understandings of the etiology of diabetes and recommend different ways to manage the condition. Based on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with both community members and clinicians, the present study seeks to understand how diabetes is understood and treated in indigenous settings in rural Yucatán. We explore the context in which community members navigate between locally available healthcare options, choose one over the other, or incorporate strategies from both into their diabetes care regimens. The tension between indigenous community members and their biomedical healthcare providers, the changing food environment of this community, and the persistence of traditional gender constructions affect the management of type II diabetes and its associated symptoms.

Usual source of health care among Hispanic children: the implications of immigration.

Deep inequities continue to exist in the access to and sources of care across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. This research examines differences in the regular source of usual health care for children among Hispanic subgroups of the United States. The immigration status of the mother -- including nativity, duration in the United States, and citizenship status -- as well as sociodemographic factors are considered as significant influences on the type of regular sources of care. Using the National Health Interview Survey from 1999 to 2001, multinomial logistic regression models are estimated to compare Mexican American and other Hispanic children with non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Both Mexican Americans and other Hispanics were more likely to report the use of clinic or the emergency room over private doctor's office as their regular source of health care compared with non-Hispanic whites. Together, the impact of the mother's nativity, duration, and citizenship status explains much of the differentials in the sources of care among Mexican American and other Hispanic children compared with non-Hispanic whites.