Publications by authors named "S Fortney"

Previous research suggests that residence in non-metropolitan areas is associated with lower access to preventive care and poorer health. However, this research has been largely restricted to the general population, despite data demonstrating disparities in health status and access to healthcare services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The current study examined several hypotheses involving the effects of rurality on access to preventive healthcare and services and health status: (1) individuals in non-metropolitan areas will have lower preventive healthcare utilization, (2) individuals in non-metropolitan areas will have poorer health outcomes, and (3) individuals in non-metropolitan areas will have poorer access to services.

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Little research has documented the experiences of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their caregivers in navigating health systems for TBI care. In this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 62 participants (34 patients with moderate or severe TBI and 28 caregivers) from Central Indiana. Data were collected from January to September 2016 and analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach.

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Objective: We examined patient and caregiver experiences of health services for moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Indiana. The objective was to provide an understanding of their lived experiences and to inform policies and practices for health services delivery for TBI.

Methods: We conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 62 participants (34 patients and 28 caregivers).

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This study examines the validity, utility, and costs of using a brief telephone-administered instrument, the Brief Health Services Questionnaire (BHSQ), for self-reported health care provider contacts relative to collection and abstraction of complete medical records. The study sample was 441 community-dwelling at-risk drinkers who participated in an 18-month longitudinal study. Agreement between BHSQ self-reports and abstracted provider contacts was good to very good for general medical (79% agreement, kappa = .

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