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. 2024 Jan 9:38:102602.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102602. eCollection 2024 Feb.

Differences in Provider Hepatitis C Virus Screening Recommendations by Patient Risk Status

Alfu Laily  1 , Robert Duncan  2 , Kaitlyn M Gabhart  3 , Lauren D Nephew  4 , Shannon M Christy  5   6   7   8 , Susan T Vadaparampil  5   7   8 , Anna R Giuliano  8   9 , Monica L Kasting  1   10
Affiliations

Differences in Provider Hepatitis C Virus Screening Recommendations by Patient Risk Status

Alfu Laily et al. Prev Med Rep. .

Abstract

Providers' recommendation is among the strongest predictors to patients engaging in preventive care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare providers' Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) screening recommendation quality between high-risk and average-risk patients to determine if providers are universally recommending HCV screening, regardless of risk behaviors. This cross-sectional survey of 284 Indiana providers in 2020 assessed provider characteristics, HCV screening recommendation practices (strength, presentation, frequency, timeliness), self-efficacy, and barriers to recommending HCV screening. T-test and Chi-square compared recommendation practices for high-risk and average-risk patients. Prevalence ratios were calculated for variables associated with HCV recommendation strength comparing high-risk and average-risk patients. Logistic regression analyses examined factors associated with HCV recommendation strength for high- and average-risk patients, with odds ratios. Compared to average-risk patients, high-risk patients received higher proportion of HCV recommendations that were strong (70.4 % v. 42.4 %), routine (61.9 % v. 55.6 %), frequent (37.7 % v. 28 %), and timely (74.2 % v. 54.9 %) (P-values < 0.001). Compared to average-risk patients, providers with high-risk patients had a lower percentage of giving a strong recommendation if they were nurse practitioner (PR = 0.49). For high-risk patients, providers with higher self-efficacy (aOR = 2.16;95 %CI = 0.99-4.69) had higher odds, while those with higher perceived barriers (aOR = 0.19;95 %CI = 0.09-0.39) and those with an internal medicine specialty compared to family medicine (aOR = 0.22;95 %CI = 0.08-0.57) had lower odds of giving a strong recommendation. These data suggest providers are not universally recommending HCV screening for all adults regardless of reported risk. Future research should translate these findings into multilevel interventions to improve HCV screening recommendations regardless of patient risk status.

Keywords: Average risk; Hepatitis C virus; High risk; Providers; Recommendation; Screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Differences in HCV Recommendation Quality Indicators for High-Risk and Average-Risk Patients Reported by Indiana PCPs from August-November 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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