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Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Women Veterans with amputation are a group with unique needs whose numbers have grown over the last 5 years, accounting for nearly 3% of all Veterans with amputation in 2019. Although identified as a national priority by the Veterans Health Administration, the needs of this population ha...

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Autores principales: Lehavot, Keren, Young, Jessica P., Thomas, Rachel M., Williams, Rhonda M., Turner, Aaron P., Norvell, Daniel C., Czerniecki, Joseph M., Korpak, Anna, Littman, Alyson J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9481864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36050521
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8
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author Lehavot, Keren
Young, Jessica P.
Thomas, Rachel M.
Williams, Rhonda M.
Turner, Aaron P.
Norvell, Daniel C.
Czerniecki, Joseph M.
Korpak, Anna
Littman, Alyson J.
author_facet Lehavot, Keren
Young, Jessica P.
Thomas, Rachel M.
Williams, Rhonda M.
Turner, Aaron P.
Norvell, Daniel C.
Czerniecki, Joseph M.
Korpak, Anna
Littman, Alyson J.
author_sort Lehavot, Keren
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Women Veterans with amputation are a group with unique needs whose numbers have grown over the last 5 years, accounting for nearly 3% of all Veterans with amputation in 2019. Although identified as a national priority by the Veterans Health Administration, the needs of this population have remained largely underrepresented in amputation research. OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of women Veterans with lower extremity amputation (LEA) related to prosthetic care provision and devices. DESIGN: National qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty women Veterans with LEA who had been prescribed a prosthesis at least 12 months prior. APPROACH: Inductive content analysis. KEY RESULTS: Four key themes emerged: (1) a sense of “feeling invisible” and lacking a connection with other women Veterans with amputation; (2) the desire for prosthetic devices that meet their biological and social needs; (3) the need for individualized assessment and a prosthetic limb prescription process that is tailored to women Veterans; the current process was often perceived as biased and either dismissive of women’s concerns or failing to adequately solicit them; and (4) the desire for prosthetists who listen to and understand women’s needs. CONCLUSIONS: Women Veterans with LEA articulated themes reminiscent of those previously reported by male Veterans with LEA, such as the importance of prostheses and the central role of the provider-patient relationship. However, they also articulated unique needs that could translate into specific strategies to improve prosthetic care, such as integrating formal opportunities for social support and peer interaction for women Veterans with LEA, advocating for administrative changes and research efforts to expand available prosthetic component options, and ensuring that clinical interactions are gender-sensitive and free of bias. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8.
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spelling pubmed-94818642022-10-21 Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study Lehavot, Keren Young, Jessica P. Thomas, Rachel M. Williams, Rhonda M. Turner, Aaron P. Norvell, Daniel C. Czerniecki, Joseph M. Korpak, Anna Littman, Alyson J. J Gen Intern Med Original Research: Qualitative Research BACKGROUND: Women Veterans with amputation are a group with unique needs whose numbers have grown over the last 5 years, accounting for nearly 3% of all Veterans with amputation in 2019. Although identified as a national priority by the Veterans Health Administration, the needs of this population have remained largely underrepresented in amputation research. OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of women Veterans with lower extremity amputation (LEA) related to prosthetic care provision and devices. DESIGN: National qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty women Veterans with LEA who had been prescribed a prosthesis at least 12 months prior. APPROACH: Inductive content analysis. KEY RESULTS: Four key themes emerged: (1) a sense of “feeling invisible” and lacking a connection with other women Veterans with amputation; (2) the desire for prosthetic devices that meet their biological and social needs; (3) the need for individualized assessment and a prosthetic limb prescription process that is tailored to women Veterans; the current process was often perceived as biased and either dismissive of women’s concerns or failing to adequately solicit them; and (4) the desire for prosthetists who listen to and understand women’s needs. CONCLUSIONS: Women Veterans with LEA articulated themes reminiscent of those previously reported by male Veterans with LEA, such as the importance of prostheses and the central role of the provider-patient relationship. However, they also articulated unique needs that could translate into specific strategies to improve prosthetic care, such as integrating formal opportunities for social support and peer interaction for women Veterans with LEA, advocating for administrative changes and research efforts to expand available prosthetic component options, and ensuring that clinical interactions are gender-sensitive and free of bias. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8. Springer International Publishing 2022-09-01 2022-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9481864/ /pubmed/36050521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Research: Qualitative Research
Lehavot, Keren
Young, Jessica P.
Thomas, Rachel M.
Williams, Rhonda M.
Turner, Aaron P.
Norvell, Daniel C.
Czerniecki, Joseph M.
Korpak, Anna
Littman, Alyson J.
Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title_full Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title_short Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study
title_sort voices of women veterans with lower limb prostheses: a qualitative study
topic Original Research: Qualitative Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9481864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36050521
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8
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