Self-Advocacy During the Medical Encounter

TLDR

Research shows that patients who self‑advocate during medical encounters gain maximum benefit, yet further study is needed to understand factors that impede black women from doing so. The study aimed to examine whether race/ethnicity and obtaining health information are associated with self‑advocacy among women, using data from the 2000‑2001 Community Tracking Study. The analysis included 7,419 women aged 45‑64 who had at least one physician visit in the prior year, and binomial logistic regression models assessed self‑advocacy. Women who obtained health information were almost five times more likely to mention it to their physician (OR ≈ 4.8), but black women were less likely to do so (OR ≈ 0.5); among those who mentioned information, Hispanic women were more likely than white women to receive a test or prescription (OR ≈ 2.1), though this difference was not statistically significant, indicating that health information is linked to self‑advocacy but black women are less likely to self‑advocate.

Abstract

Research indicates that patients who self-advocate during the medical encounter gain maximum benefit. However, little is known about racial/ethnic differences in self-advocacy.We sought to examine whether race/ethnicity and obtaining health information are associated with self-advocacy (mentioned health information to physician and physician ordered tests based on health information).Study data were drawn from the 2000-2001 Household Component of the Community Tracking Study, a nationally representative survey. The study sample included 7419 women ages 45 to 64 who had at least 1 physician visit in the previous year. Binomial logit models were used to assess self-advocacy. Probability adjustments were applied to results.In the full sample (n = 7419), women who obtained health information were almost 5 times more likely to mention that information to their physician (odds ration [OR] = 4.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.05-5.60) than women who did not obtain information. Black women were less likely to mention health information to their physician (OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.37-0.73) than white women. Among women who obtained health information (n = 3690), black women also were less likely to mention health information to their physician (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.40-0.83) than white women. Among those who mentioned health information to the physician, Hispanic women were more likely than white women to have a test/procedure/prescription prescribed (OR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.10-4.20). However, after adjusting probability, this difference was not statistically significant.Although health information was associated with self-advocacy, black women were less likely to self-advocate. Further research is needed to better understand factors that impede black women from self-advocating.