Introduction: Vaccination during pregnancy is recommended but uptake is low and evidence on the topic is limited.
Aims: This study aimed to identify the drivers of current behavior and barriers to change for health care practitioners (HCPs) and pregnant patients in Canada.
Methods: This study is an in-depth qualitative investigation of the factors influencing HCPs' vaccination communication during pregnancy, as well as factors influencing pregnant patients' vaccination uptake in Canada using the Theoretical Domains Framework.
Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant global health burden, particularly among people who inject drugs. Rapid point-of-care HCV testing has emerged as a promising approach to improve HCV detection and linkage to care in harm reduction organizations such as needle and syringe programs. The objective of this study was to use an intersectionality lens to explore the barriers and enablers to point-of-care HCV testing in a needle and syringe program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Up to 50% of blood is transfused inappropriately despite best evidence. In 2020, Choosing Wisely Canada launched a major national programme, 'Using Blood Wisely', the aim was to engage hospitals to audit their red blood cell transfusion use against national benchmarks and participate in a programme to decrease inappropriate use.
Study Design: Using Blood Wisely is a quality improvement programme including national benchmarks, an audit tool, recommended evidence-based effective interventions and a designation to reward success.
Background: Promoting the uptake of vaccination for infectious diseases such as COVID-19 remains a global challenge, necessitating collaborative efforts between public health units (PHUs) and communities. Applied behavioural science can play a crucial role in supporting PHUs' response by providing insights into human behaviour and informing tailored strategies to enhance vaccination uptake. Community engagement can help broaden the reach of behavioural science research by involving a more diverse range of populations and ensuring that strategies better represent the needs of specific communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The evaluation of patient engagement in research is understudied and under-reported, making it difficult to know what engagement strategies work best and when. We provide the results of an evaluation of patient engagement in a large Canadian research program focused on the de-implementation of low-value care. We aimed to evaluate the experience and impact of patient engagement in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Vaccination in pregnancy (VIP) is a protective measure for pregnant individuals and their babies. Healthcare provider's (HCP) recommendations are important in promoting VIP. However, a lack of strong recommendations and accessible resources to facilitate communication impact uptake.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Access to hepatitis C care within harm reduction community organizations for people who inject drugs is crucial for achieving hepatitis C elimination. However, there is a lack of data on how perceptions of hepatitis C and treatment have changed among individuals visiting these organizations during the era of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). This study aimed to explore the perceptions of hepatitis C and treatment access for (re)infection among individuals visiting a needle and syringe program in Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is evidence of significant intraoperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusion variability that cannot be explained by case-mix, and may reflect unwarranted transfusions. The objective was to explore the source of intraoperative RBC transfusion variability by eliciting the beliefs of anesthesiologists and surgeons that underlie transfusion decisions. Interviews based on the Theoretical Domains Framework were conducted to identify beliefs about intraoperative transfusion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite recommendations to deprescribe chronic benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRA) among older adults, the prevalence of their use in Belgian nursing homes (NHs) remains above 50%. The use of a behavioral science approach, starting with the evaluation of barriers and enablers for BZRA deprescribing, has the potential to decrease BZRA prescribing.
Objectives: To identify barriers and enablers for BZRA deprescribing perceived by the different stakeholders involved in nursing home care in Belgium.
Background: Choosing Wisely Canada and most major anesthesia and preoperative guidelines recommend against obtaining preoperative tests before low-risk procedures. However, these recommendations alone have not reduced low-value test ordering. In this study, the theoretical domains framework (TDF) was used to understand the drivers of preoperative electrocardiogram (ECG) and chest X-ray (CXR) ordering for patients undergoing low-risk surgery ('low-value preoperative testing') among anesthesiologists, internal medicine specialists, nurses, and surgeons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Non-specific low back pain (LBP) commonly presents to primary care, where inappropriate use of imaging remains common despite guideline recommendations against its routine use. Little is known about strategies to enhance intervention fidelity (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare professionals provide care to help patients; however, sometimes that care is of low value - at best ineffective and at worst harmful. To address this, recent frameworks provide guidance for developing and investigating de-implementation interventions; yet little attention has been devoted to identifying what strategies are most effective for de-implementation. In this paper, we discuss Behavior substitution, a strategy whereby an unwanted behavior is replaced with a wanted behavior, thereby making it hypothetically easier to reduce or stop the unwanted behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Overprescription of antibiotics poses a significant threat to healthcare globally as it contributes to the issue of antibiotic resistance. While antibiotics should be predominately prescribed for bacterial infections, they are often inappropriately given for uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and related conditions, such as the common cold. This study will involve a qualitative systematic review of physician-reported barriers to using evidence-based antibiotic prescription guidelines in primary care settings and synthesise the findings using a theoretical basis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Diffuse implementation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment is dependent on universal screening for HCV, but screening strategies are heterogenous across prisons in the province of Quebec (Canada). We sought to identify barriers and enablers to universal opt-out HCV screening and to describe the multisectoral decision-making processes related to HCV screening in Quebec provincial prisons.
Methods: A multilevel, multi-theory informed qualitative descriptive approach was used to conduct semi-structured interviews.
Healthcare professional (HCP) behaviours are actions performed by individuals and teams for varying and often complex patient needs. However, gaps exist between evidence-informed care behaviours and the care provided. Implementation science seeks to develop generalizable principles and approaches to investigate and address care gaps, supporting HCP behaviour change while building a cumulative science.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The inappropriate use of lumbar spine imaging remains common in primary care despite recommendations from evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to avoid imaging in the absence of red flags. This study aimed to explore factors influencing ordering behaviours and adherence to radiographic guidelines for low back pain (LBP) in chiropractors in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada.
Methods: We conducted two focus groups in December 2018 with chiropractors in different regions of NL (eastern, n = 8; western, n = 4).
Introduction: Engaging with patients about their lived experience of health and illness and their experience within the healthcare system can help inform the provision of care, health policies and health research. In the context of health research, however, operationalizing the levels of patient engagement is not straightforward. We suggest that a key challenge to the routine inclusion of patients as partners in health research is a lack of tangible guidance regarding how this can be accomplished.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We sought to improve care of patients with acute atrial fibrillation (AF) and flutter (AFL) in the emergency department (ED) by implementing the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Acute AF/AFL Best Practices Checklist.
Methods: We conducted a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial at 11 large community and academic hospital EDs in 5 Canadian provinces and enrolled consecutive AF/AFL patients. The study intervention was introduction of the CAEP Checklist with the use of a knowledge translation-implementation approach that included behaviour change techniques and organisation/system-level strategies.
Background: Decreasing ineffective or harmful healthcare practices (de-implementation) may require different approaches than those used to promote uptake of effective practices (implementation). Few psychological theories differentiate between processes involved in decreasing, versus increasing, behaviour. However, it is unknown whether implementation and de-implementation interventions already use different approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although antibiotics have little or no benefit for most upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), they continue to be prescribed frequently in primary care. Physicians perceive that patients' expectations influence their antibiotic prescribing practice; however, not all patients seek antibiotic treatment despite having similar symptoms. In this study, we explored patients' views about URTIs, and the ways patients manage them (including attendance in primary care and taking antibiotics).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Current evidence suggests that preoperative tests such as chest X-rays, electrocardiograms and baseline laboratory studies may not be useful for healthy patients undergoing low-risk surgical procedures. Routine preoperative testing for healthy patients having low-risk surgery is not a scientifically sound practice. In this study, we will interview healthcare providers working at medical facilities where low-risk surgical procedures are carried out.
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