Reproductive Planning for Women Veterans

NIH RePORTER · VA · IK2 · · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): BACKGROUND. Lisa Callegari, MD, MPH is a postdoctoral HSR&D fellow at VA Puget Sound, a VA Staff Gynecologist, and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Washington. Since beginning her fellowship in 2012, Dr. Callegari's research has reflected her commitment to addressing the reproductive health care needs of women Veterans. The proposed Career Development Award (CDA-2) will provide Dr. Callegari with the in-depth training and skills she needs to succeed as an independent health services researcher designing and testing interventions to improve reproductive health care for women Veterans. CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN. Dr. Callegari's proposed CDA-2 will employ innovative strategies, including reproductive planning and shared decision making, to address gaps in reproductive health services for women Veterans. Compared to civilians, women Veterans have higher rates of chronic medical and mental health illness. These comorbidities, in combination with low rates of documented contraception among women Veterans, result in increased risks of unplanned pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes. Reproductive planning discussions promote proactive planning for pregnancy and contraceptive use, yet rarely occur in practice. One novel approach to guide reproductive planning discussions is use of a decision aid based on shared decision making principles. Decision aids improve decision quality by aligning patients' health care decisions with their values and preferences. While decision aids have been used effectively for other reproductive health decisions, no decision aid has been developed for reproductive planning. This CDA-2 proposes to design and test a reproductive planning decision aid intervention in VA primary care to improve reproductive planning decision quality and use of contraception. Specifically, this CDA-2 aims to: 1) determine reproductive planning decision needs among women Veterans and VA primary care physicians using qualitative methods; 2) develop, refine, and pilot test a reproductive planning decision aid; and 3) conduct a two-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effect of the decision aid on decision quality (decisional conflict, knowledge, decision self-efficacy and decision satisfaction) and contraceptive outcomes, compared to reproductive planning information only. Barriers and facilitators to implementation will also be investigated to facilitate downstream implementation if the intervention is found to be effective. The experience Dr. Callegari will gain in conducting the proposed research will be supplemented with structured training in qualitative methods, decision science and decision aid development, RCT design, and implementation science. Dr. Callegari will conduct her research under the guidance and supervision of her mentorship and consultant team, which includes experts in health services interventions (Karin Nelson, MD, MSHS), shared d...

Key facts

NIH application ID
10175010
Project number
5IK2HX001736-05
Recipient
VA PUGET SOUND HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Principal Investigator
Lisa Susanne Callegari
Activity code
IK2
Funding institute
VA
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
Award type
5
Project period
2015-10-01 → 2020-09-30