Efficacy of a multimedia intervention in facilitating breast cancer patients' clinical communication about sexual health: Results of a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Many women with breast cancer (BC) hesitate to raise sexual concerns clinically. We evaluated a multimedia intervention to facilitate BC patients' communication about sexual/menopausal health, called Starting the Conversation (STC). METHODS: Female BC patients (N = 144) were randomly assigned to either STC (20-min video, workbook, and resource guide) or control (resource guide only). Audio-recorded dialogue from patients' next oncology clinic encounter was coded for patients' sexual health communication. Self-report surveys assessed patients' beliefs about sexual health communication, self-efficacy for clinical interactions, sexual function/activity, anxiety/depression symptoms, and quality of life at baseline, post-intervention, and 2-month follow-up. T-tests or mixed-effects logistic regression compared study arms. RESULTS: Women in the STC arm were more likely to raise the topic of sexual health (51%; OR = 2.62 [1.02, 6.69], p = 0.04) and ask a sexual health question (40%; OR = 2.85 [1.27, 6.38], p = 0.01) during their clinic encounter than those in the control arm (30% and 19% for raise and ask, respectively). At follow-up, women in the STC arm showed greater improvements in sexual health communication self-efficacy (p = 0.009) and in anxiety symptoms (p = 0.03), and more women were sexually active at follow-up, compared to the control arm (OR = 1.5, 70% vs. 46%, p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The STC intervention facilitated women's clinical communication about sexual health and reduced women's anxiety, possibly due to increased confidence in expressing their medical needs. Helpful information gained from clinical discussions could have improved women's willingness or ability to engage in sexual activity. Future studies should identify aspects of the clinical encounter most critical to improving women's sexual outcomes.

A qualitative exploration of chronic pain and opioid treatment among HIV patients with drug use disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The study explored high-risk participants' experiences with pain management regarding clinical access to and use of prescription opioids. DESIGN: Qualitative semistructured interviews and focus groups. SETTING: Data were collected August 2014 to May 2015 at an urban community-based research facility in Baltimore City, MD. PARTICIPANTS: HIV participants with chronic pain and a history of illicit drug use. METHODS: Qualitative coding and analysis used an iterative, inductive, and thematic approach and coders achieved inter-coder consistency. RESULTS: The authors identified two major themes. First, participants had positive and negative interactions with healthcare providers regarding chronic pain treatment. Participants perceived that providers lacked empathy for their pain and/or were not adequately managing their pain. These interactions resulted in participants seeking new providers or mistrusting the medical system. Further, providers' surveillance of participants' pain treatment regimen contributed to distress surrounding pain management. The second theme centered on participants' pain management experiences with prescribed opioid analgesics. Participants felt they were receiving dosages and classes of analgesics that did not sufficiently address their pain, and consequently modified their dosages or rationed prescription opioids. Other participants were reluctant to take analgesics due to their history of illicit drug use. Some participants relapsed to illicit drug use when they felt their prescription opioids did not adequately address their pain needs. CONCLUSIONS: Participant struggles with receiving and managing prescribed opioid analgesics suggest a need for: therapies beyond these medications; guidelines for providers specific to this population; and harm reduction trainings for providers.

The Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma: Initial findings from the Improving Patient Outcomes through Respect and Trust study.

Research about the influence of stigma on health outcomes in sickle cell disease is limited. We administered the recently developed Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma to 262 patients in the United States. The Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma yielded very good internal consistency and four interpretable factors. Significant associations among stigma, pain-related healthcare utilization, and perceived disease severity were observed for three of the four stigma factors (F range = 2.78-5.44). The Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma appears to be a useful tool for measuring disease-specific stigma among adults living with sickle cell disease, and further assessment of its clinical utility is warranted.

Higher quality communication and relationships are associated with improved patient engagement in HIV care.

Patient retention in HIV care may be influenced by patient-provider interactions. In an urban, academic HIV clinic, 1363 patients rated the quality of communication and relationships with their providers on 5 domains. We used linear regressions to investigate associations between these 5 domains and appointment adherence. In multivariate analysis, patients kept more appointments if providers treated them with dignity and respect, listened carefully to them, explained in ways they could understand, and knew them as persons. Being involved in decisions was not significantly associated with appointment adherence. Enhancing providers' skills in effective communication and relationship building may improve patient retention in HIV care.

Physician communication behaviors and trust among black and white patients with hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Racial differences in patient trust have been observed, but it is unclear which physician communication behaviors are related to trust, and whether the relationship of communication and trust differs among black and white patients. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether there were associations between physician communication behaviors, visit process measures, and patient trust, particularly within racial groups. METHODS: Study participants included 39 primary care physicians and 227 black and white hypertensive patients from community-based practices in Baltimore, MD. Physician informational and affective communication behaviors and visit process measures were coded from visit audiotapes using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Patient trust was measured using items from the Trust in Physician Scale, and dichotomized (high/low). Logistic regression analysis using generalized estimating equations was used to assess the association of each physician communication behavior and visit process measure with patient trust, among the entire sample and then stratified by patient race. RESULTS: Positive physician affect and longer visits were significantly associated with high patient trust in unadjusted analyses. After adjustment for covariates, positive physician affect remained a significant predictor of high patient trust in the overall sample (odds ratio 1.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.08, 1.48; P=0.004) and after stratification by race, among black patients (odds ratio 1.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.09, 1.67; P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Physician communication behaviors may have a varying effect on patient trust, depending on patient race. Communication skills training programs targeting emotion-handling and rapport-building behaviors are promising strategies to reduce disparities in health care and to enhance trust among ethnic minority patients.

HIV women's health: a study of gynecological healthcare service utilization in a U.S. urban clinic population.

BACKGROUND: Women infected with HIV have a high rate of many gynecological problems. Adherence to recommended gynecological care among women enrolled in our urban HIV clinics was hypothesized to be low. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of data from the Johns Hopkins HIV Clinical Cohort Database examining demographic and clinical predictors of clinic visit adherence by women in the HIV primary care and HIV gynecological clinics. RESULTS: Between January 2002 and April 2006, 1,086 women had 26,401 scheduled appointments to the two clinics, of which 21,959 were to HIV primary care and 4,442 were to HIV gynecological care. There were 12,097 (55%) completed primary care visits and 1,609 (36.2%) completed HIV gynecological visits (p < 0.001, accounting for clustering). By multivariate analysis, age <40 years (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70-0.94) and substance abuse (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.61-0.73) were associated with a decreased likelihood of attending an HIV primary care appointment. African American race (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45-0.90), CD4 count <200 cells/mm(3) (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.56-0.95), and substance abuse (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.45-0.71) were associated with a decreased likelihood of attending an HIV gynecological appointment. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis determined that the rate of clinic visit adherence is significantly lower for HIV gynecological care than for HIV primary care in the same population of women. Factors associated with HIV gynecological clinic visit noncompliance included African American race/ethnicity, substance use, and more advanced immunosuppression. We have planned additional quantitative and qualitative studies to examine the associations with and barriers to HIV gynecological care, with the goal of creating appropriate interventions toward improving gynecological healthcare utilization among women enrolled in urban HIV clinics.