Is patient-centred care for women a priority for policy-makers? Content analysis of government policies

Abstract

Background: Considerable research shows that women experience gendered disparities in healthcare access and quality. Patient-centred care (PCC) could reduce inequities by addressing the patient's clinical and personal needs. Healthcare policies can influence service delivery to optimise patient outcomes. This study assessed whether and how government policies recognise and promote PCC for women (PCCW). Methods: We analysed the content of English-language policies published in Canada from 2010 to 2018 on depression and cardiac rehabilitationconditions featuring known gendered inequitiesthat were identified on government websites. We extracted data and used summary statistics to enumerate mentions of PCC and women's health. Results: We included 30 policies (20 depression, 10 cardiac rehabilitation). Of those, 20 (66.7%) included any content related to PCC (median 1.0, range 0.0 to 5.0), most often exchanging information (14, 46.7%) and making decisions (13, 43.3%). Less frequent domains were enabling self-management (8, 26.7%), addressing emotions (6, 20.0%) and fostering the relationship (4, 13.3%). No policies included content for the domain of managing uncertainty. A higher proportion of cardiac rehabilitation guidelines included PCC content. Among the 30 policies, 7 (23.3%) included content related to at least one women's health domain (median 0.0, range 0.0 to 3.0). Most frequently included were social determinants of health (4, 13.3%). Fewer policies mentioned any issues to consider for women (2, 28.6%), issues specific to subgroups of women (2, 28.6%) or distinguished care for women from men (2, 28.6%). No policies included mention of abuse or violence, or discrimination or stigma. The policies largely pertained to depression. Despite mention of PCC or women's health, policies offered brief, vague guidance on how to achieve PCCW; for example, "Patients value being involved in decision-making" and "Women want care that is collaborative, woman-and family-centered, and culturally sensitive." Conclusions: Despite considerable evidence of need and international recommendations, most policies failed to recognise gendered disparities or promote PCC as a mitigating strategy. These identified gaps represent opportunities by which government policies could be developed or strengthened to support PCCW. Future research should investigate complementary strategies such as equipping policy-makers with the evidence and tools required to develop PCCW-informed policies.

Unclear if future physicians are learning about patient-centred care: Content analysis of curriculum at 16 medical schools

“…The PCC framework comprehensively identifies numerous strategies that clinicians can use to achieve PCC across six domains: foster a healing relationship, exchange information, address concerns, manage uncertainty, share decisions and enable selfcare. Furthermore, we had tested this schema in our prior research by applying it to examine PCC in Canadian government policies, clinical guidelines and online health information for patients (Blackwood et al 2019;Gagliardi et al 2019Gagliardi et al , 2020. As a pilot test, NA and ARG together reviewed and extracted content on PCC from two documents of one school.…”

Medical student exposure to women’s health concepts and practices: a content analysis of curriculum at Canadian medical schools

“…diagnosis and treatment of diseases and conditions that affect women’s emotional and physical well-being) or considerations when delivering or supporting the care of women for any health issue [ 1 ]. This analytic framework was tested in our prior research involving content analysis of Canadian government policies and clinical guidelines for information relevant to WH [ 38 , 39 ]. As a pilot test, NA and ARG together reviewed and extracted content on WH from two documents of one school.…”

How Does China Promote Integrated Care Development? A Policy Content Analysis

“…Like other qualitative methods in research, qualitative document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to gain elicit meaning, develop comprehensive understanding for the intention of policy makers and to verify the assumptions made before [15][16][17]. This method can be directly used to quantitatively and/or qualitatively describe explicit content in visual communication, verbal or written [18]. In this paper, the QDA process mainly entailed key steps: (a) date collection; (b) date analysis; (c) inter-rater analysis.…”