Does a Welcoming Environment Influence Women Veterans' Primary Care Experiences?

Background: A welcoming environment may influence patient care experiences, and it may be particularly relevant for underrepresented groups, such as women veterans at Veterans Health Administration (VA) facilities where they represent only 8-10% of patients. Challenges to ensuring a welcoming environment for women veterans may include unwelcome comments from male veterans and staff or volunteers and feeling unsafe inside or outside VA facilities. We assessed associations between reports of gender-related environment of care problems and patient-reported outcomes.

Increasing Engagement of Women Veterans in Health Research.

Background: Meaningful engagement of patients in health research has the potential to increase research impact and foster patient trust in healthcare. For the past decade, the Veterans Health Administration (VA) has invested in increasing Veteran engagement in research.

Objective: We sought the perspectives of women Veterans, VA women's health primary care providers (WH-PCPs), and administrators on barriers to and facilitators of health research engagement among women Veterans, the fastest growing subgroup of VA users.

Evidence Map: Reporting of Results by Sex or Gender in Randomized, Controlled Trials with Women Veteran Participants (2008 to 2018).

Background: Higher participation of women in randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) has not led to significantly improved reporting of sex-stratified results. A recent evidence map of research on women veterans revealed that many studies did not report results by sex or gender. This study's objectives were to compare characteristics of RCTs with women veteran participants that did or did not report results by sex or gender and to assess how sex and gender are addressed in research with women veterans.

Experiences in the Veterans Health Administration and Impact on Healthcare Utilization: Comparisons Between LGBT and Non-LGBT Women Veterans.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare experiences related to healthcare of LGBT women and non-LGBT women in a sample of routine users of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care services and examine the impact of those experiences on delaying or missing appointments for VHA care.

Methods: Women veterans (N = 1391) who had at least three primary care visits in the previous year at 12 VHA facilities were surveyed by phone in January-March 2015 in a baseline wave of a cluster-randomized quality improvement trial. The majority identified as non-LGBT (1201; 85.

Reporting of Sex Effects by Systematic Reviews on Interventions for Depression, Diabetes, and Chronic Pain.

Systematic reviews (SRs) have the potential to contribute uniquely to the evaluation of sex and gender differences (termed "sex effects"). This article describes the reporting of sex effects by SRs on interventions for depression, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic pain conditions (chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia). It includes SRs published since 1 October 2009 that evaluate medications, behavioral interventions, exercise, quality improvement, and some condition-specific treatments.

Addressing unmet mental health and substance abuse needs: a partnered planning effort between grassroots community agencies, faith-based organizations, service providers, and academic institutions.

Objective: To conduct a process evaluation of the Restoration Center Los Angeles, a community-academic partnered planning effort aimed at holistically addressing the unmet mental health and substance abuse needs of the Los Angeles African American community.

Design: Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions on key domains of partnership effectiveness were conducted with a random stratified sample of participants varying by level of involvement.

Participants: Eleven partners representing grassroots community agencies, faith-based organizations, service providers, and academic institutions.