BACKGROUND: Hispanics make up one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States, and this traditionally underrepresented group faces medical and health disparities that make their disease burden disproportionally high. For stroke, this burden presents as increased incidence and increase negative outcomes. This burden is partially due to Hispanics taking longer to present to the hospital with their stroke symptoms, resulting in no rt-PA administration.
LITERATURE REVIEW: The research shows that this increased time to presentation is due to poor understanding of the United States healthcare system, language barriers, and decreased access to healthcare. Poor understanding of the medical system stems from a higher level of fear and mistrust. The language barrier for Spanish-speaking Hispanics results from a lack of interpreter access as well as poor quality interpreters. Lastly, the majority of healthcare access issues result from higher rates of uninsured. However, there is limited data looking at what barriers Hispanic stroke patients cite as causing delays in stroke care.
PROJECT AND METHODS: This study proposes to identify and analyze the barriers reported by Hispanics with a past medical history of stroke. In order to do so, patients will engage in open-ended interviews that will aim to cover barriers discussed in the literature. After the interviews, the qualitative data will undergo theme analysis, and then the themes will be organized via frequency.
CONCLUSION: The advantage of this study design is the ability to more accurately identify the barriers in placed. The study design is not without limitations, which include selection bias, interviewer bias, and recall bias.
SIGNIFICANCE: Once the study allows for accurate identification of the barriers, more effective Public Health campaigns can be created to target the Hispanic population. These more precise campaigns will work to lower time delay in acute stroke care thus increasing positive outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/26680 |
| Date | 02 November 2017 |
| Creators | Jones, Kristin |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds