Cargando…

Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program

BACKGROUND: Ensuring enhanced delivery of care to women Veterans is a top Veterans Affairs (VA) priority; however, women are historically underrepresented in research that informs evidence-based health care. A primary barrier to women's participation is the inability to engage with research in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Whitbourne, Stacey B., Li, Yanping, Brewer, Jessica V.V., Deen, Jennifer, Gutierrez, Claudia, Murphy, Sybil A., Lord, Emily, Yan, Joseph, Nguyen, Xuan-Mai T., Tsao, Philip S., Gaziano, J. Michael, Muralidhar, Sumitra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10240313/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37284530
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/heq.2023.0006
_version_ 1785053721027149824
author Whitbourne, Stacey B.
Li, Yanping
Brewer, Jessica V.V.
Deen, Jennifer
Gutierrez, Claudia
Murphy, Sybil A.
Lord, Emily
Yan, Joseph
Nguyen, Xuan-Mai T.
Tsao, Philip S.
Gaziano, J. Michael
Muralidhar, Sumitra
author_facet Whitbourne, Stacey B.
Li, Yanping
Brewer, Jessica V.V.
Deen, Jennifer
Gutierrez, Claudia
Murphy, Sybil A.
Lord, Emily
Yan, Joseph
Nguyen, Xuan-Mai T.
Tsao, Philip S.
Gaziano, J. Michael
Muralidhar, Sumitra
author_sort Whitbourne, Stacey B.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Ensuring enhanced delivery of care to women Veterans is a top Veterans Affairs (VA) priority; however, women are historically underrepresented in research that informs evidence-based health care. A primary barrier to women's participation is the inability to engage with research in person due to a number of documented challenges. The VA Million Veteran Program (MVP) is committed to increasing access for women Veterans to participate in research, thereby better understanding conditions specific to this population and how disease manifests differently in women compared to men. The goal of this work is to describe the results of the MVP Women's Campaign, an effort designed to increase outreach to and awareness of remote enrollment options for women Veterans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MVP Women's Campaign launched two phases between March 2021 and April 2022: the Multimedia Phase leveraged a variety of strategic multichannel communication tactics and the Email Phase focused on direct email communication to women Veterans. The effect of the Multimedia Phase was determined using t-tests and chi-square tests, as well as logistic regression models to compare demographic subgroups. The Email Phase was evaluated using comparisons of the enrollment rate across demographic groups through a multivariate adjusted logistic regression model. RESULTS: Overall, 4694 women Veterans enrolled during the MVP Women's Campaign (54% during the Multimedia Phase and 46% during the Email Phase). For the Multimedia Phase, the percentage of older women online enrollees increased, along with women from the southwest and western regions of the United States. Differences for women Veteran online enrollment across different ethnicity and race groups were not observed. During the Email Phase, the enrollment rate increased with age. Compared to White women Veterans, Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans were significantly less likely to enroll while Veterans with multiple races were more likely to enroll. CONCLUSION: The MVP Women's Campaign is the first large-scale outreach effort focusing on recruitment of women Veterans into MVP. The combination of print and digital outreach tactics and direct email recruitment resulted in over a fivefold increase in women Veteran enrollees during a 7-month period. Attention to messaging and communication channels, combined with a better understanding of effective recruitment methods for certain Veteran populations, allows MVP the opportunity to advance health and health care not only for women Veterans, but beyond. Lessons learned will be applied to increase other populations in MVP such as Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, younger Veterans, and Veterans with certain health conditions.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10240313
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-102403132023-06-06 Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program Whitbourne, Stacey B. Li, Yanping Brewer, Jessica V.V. Deen, Jennifer Gutierrez, Claudia Murphy, Sybil A. Lord, Emily Yan, Joseph Nguyen, Xuan-Mai T. Tsao, Philip S. Gaziano, J. Michael Muralidhar, Sumitra Health Equity Special Collection: Improving Care for Veterans Through Health Equity Research (#9/14) BACKGROUND: Ensuring enhanced delivery of care to women Veterans is a top Veterans Affairs (VA) priority; however, women are historically underrepresented in research that informs evidence-based health care. A primary barrier to women's participation is the inability to engage with research in person due to a number of documented challenges. The VA Million Veteran Program (MVP) is committed to increasing access for women Veterans to participate in research, thereby better understanding conditions specific to this population and how disease manifests differently in women compared to men. The goal of this work is to describe the results of the MVP Women's Campaign, an effort designed to increase outreach to and awareness of remote enrollment options for women Veterans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MVP Women's Campaign launched two phases between March 2021 and April 2022: the Multimedia Phase leveraged a variety of strategic multichannel communication tactics and the Email Phase focused on direct email communication to women Veterans. The effect of the Multimedia Phase was determined using t-tests and chi-square tests, as well as logistic regression models to compare demographic subgroups. The Email Phase was evaluated using comparisons of the enrollment rate across demographic groups through a multivariate adjusted logistic regression model. RESULTS: Overall, 4694 women Veterans enrolled during the MVP Women's Campaign (54% during the Multimedia Phase and 46% during the Email Phase). For the Multimedia Phase, the percentage of older women online enrollees increased, along with women from the southwest and western regions of the United States. Differences for women Veteran online enrollment across different ethnicity and race groups were not observed. During the Email Phase, the enrollment rate increased with age. Compared to White women Veterans, Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans were significantly less likely to enroll while Veterans with multiple races were more likely to enroll. CONCLUSION: The MVP Women's Campaign is the first large-scale outreach effort focusing on recruitment of women Veterans into MVP. The combination of print and digital outreach tactics and direct email recruitment resulted in over a fivefold increase in women Veteran enrollees during a 7-month period. Attention to messaging and communication channels, combined with a better understanding of effective recruitment methods for certain Veteran populations, allows MVP the opportunity to advance health and health care not only for women Veterans, but beyond. Lessons learned will be applied to increase other populations in MVP such as Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, younger Veterans, and Veterans with certain health conditions. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2023-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10240313/ /pubmed/37284530 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/heq.2023.0006 Text en © Stacey B. Whitbourne et al., 2023; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC-BY] (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Special Collection: Improving Care for Veterans Through Health Equity Research (#9/14)
Whitbourne, Stacey B.
Li, Yanping
Brewer, Jessica V.V.
Deen, Jennifer
Gutierrez, Claudia
Murphy, Sybil A.
Lord, Emily
Yan, Joseph
Nguyen, Xuan-Mai T.
Tsao, Philip S.
Gaziano, J. Michael
Muralidhar, Sumitra
Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title_full Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title_fullStr Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title_full_unstemmed Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title_short Overview of Efforts to Increase Women Enrollment in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program
title_sort overview of efforts to increase women enrollment in the veterans affairs million veteran program
topic Special Collection: Improving Care for Veterans Through Health Equity Research (#9/14)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10240313/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37284530
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/heq.2023.0006
work_keys_str_mv AT whitbournestaceyb overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT liyanping overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT brewerjessicavv overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT deenjennifer overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT gutierrezclaudia overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT murphysybila overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT lordemily overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT yanjoseph overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT nguyenxuanmait overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT tsaophilips overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT gazianojmichael overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram
AT muralidharsumitra overviewofeffortstoincreasewomenenrollmentintheveteransaffairsmillionveteranprogram