For a study, researchers aimed to determine the degree of disparities in patient empowerment based on biopsychosocial patient-reported measures, as well as which factors best explained those differences. A total of 6,918 persons with arthritis in the US participated in this cross-sectional observational study. The Arthritis Foundation’s Live Yes! INSIGHTS program collected data from March 2019 to March 2020. The Health Care Empowerment Questionnaire contained two measures for measuring patient empowerment: Patient Information Seeking and Interaction with Healthcare.
The PROMIS-29® and PROMIS® Emotional Support scales were used to assess patient-reported outcomes. The analysis of variance was used to look at the differences between groups, while Spearman’s Rank Correlation was used to look at the relationships between variables. The contributions of sociodemographic factors, arthritis type, and patient-reported health metrics in explaining patient empowerment (=0.05) were established using hierarchical regression analysis.
Males, those who were older, less educated, or those who had lower income, osteoarthritis, less emotional support, or greater physical function had lower empowerment, however, the effect was small to inconsequential in the final regression models for most of these variables. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, empowerment did not differ by race/ethnicity. Emotional Support was the most important factor in explaining patient empowerment in final regression models. Patient empowerment necessitates emotional support. As a result, programs aimed at increasing patient empowerment should focus on and measure the impact of emotional support.
Reference:www.jrheum.org/content/early/2022/01/25/jrheum.210818
