Whitbourne Stacey B, Li Yanping, Brewer Jessica V V, Deen Jennifer, Gutierrez Claudia, Murphy Sybil A, Lord Emily, Yan Joseph, Nguyen Xuan-Mai T, Tsao Philip S, Gaziano J Michael, Muralidhar Sumitra
Million Veteran Program Coordinating Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Health Equity. 2023 May 26;7(1):324-332. doi: 10.1089/heq.2023.0006. eCollection 2023.
Ensuring enhanced delivery of care to women Veterans is a top Veterans Affairs (VA) priority; however, women are historically underrepresented in research that informs evidence-based health care. A primary barrier to women's participation is the inability to engage with research in person due to a number of documented challenges. The VA Million Veteran Program (MVP) is committed to increasing access for women Veterans to participate in research, thereby better understanding conditions specific to this population and how disease manifests differently in women compared to men. The goal of this work is to describe the results of the MVP Women's Campaign, an effort designed to increase outreach to and awareness of remote enrollment options for women Veterans.
The MVP Women's Campaign launched two phases between March 2021 and April 2022: the Multimedia Phase leveraged a variety of strategic multichannel communication tactics and the Email Phase focused on direct email communication to women Veterans. The effect of the Multimedia Phase was determined using -tests and chi-square tests, as well as logistic regression models to compare demographic subgroups. The Email Phase was evaluated using comparisons of the enrollment rate across demographic groups through a multivariate adjusted logistic regression model.
Overall, 4694 women Veterans enrolled during the MVP Women's Campaign (54% during the Multimedia Phase and 46% during the Email Phase). For the Multimedia Phase, the percentage of older women online enrollees increased, along with women from the southwest and western regions of the United States. Differences for women Veteran online enrollment across different ethnicity and race groups were not observed. During the Email Phase, the enrollment rate increased with age. Compared to White women Veterans, Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans were significantly less likely to enroll while Veterans with multiple races were more likely to enroll.
The MVP Women's Campaign is the first large-scale outreach effort focusing on recruitment of women Veterans into MVP. The combination of print and digital outreach tactics and direct email recruitment resulted in over a fivefold increase in women Veteran enrollees during a 7-month period. Attention to messaging and communication channels, combined with a better understanding of effective recruitment methods for certain Veteran populations, allows MVP the opportunity to advance health and health care not only for women Veterans, but beyond. Lessons learned will be applied to increase other populations in MVP such as Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, younger Veterans, and Veterans with certain health conditions.
确保为女性退伍军人提供更高质量的医疗服务是美国退伍军人事务部（VA）的首要任务；然而，在为循证医疗提供依据的研究中，女性的代表性历来不足。女性参与研究的一个主要障碍是，由于一些已记录在案的挑战，她们无法亲自参与研究。VA百万退伍军人计划（MVP）致力于增加女性退伍军人参与研究的机会，从而更好地了解这一人群的特定情况，以及与男性相比，疾病在女性身上的表现有何不同。这项工作的目标是描述MVP女性运动的结果，该运动旨在加强对女性退伍军人远程注册选项的宣传并提高其认知度。
MVP女性运动在2021年3月至2022年4月期间分两个阶段开展：多媒体阶段利用了各种战略性多渠道传播策略，电子邮件阶段则侧重于直接向女性退伍军人发送电子邮件。多媒体阶段的效果通过t检验、卡方检验以及逻辑回归模型来确定，以比较人口亚组。电子邮件阶段通过多变量调整逻辑回归模型对各人口群体的注册率进行比较来评估。
总体而言，在MVP女性运动期间有4694名女性退伍军人注册（多媒体阶段占54%，电子邮件阶段占46%）。在多媒体阶段，老年女性在线注册者的比例有所增加，来自美国西南部和西部地区的女性也是如此。不同种族和族裔群体的女性退伍军人在线注册情况未观察到差异。在电子邮件阶段，注册率随年龄增长而增加。与白人女性退伍军人相比，黑人、亚洲人和美国原住民注册的可能性明显较低，而多种族退伍军人注册的可能性较高。
MVP女性运动是首次大规模的外展活动，重点是招募女性退伍军人加入MVP。印刷和数字外展策略以及直接电子邮件招募相结合，在7个月内使女性退伍军人注册人数增加了五倍多。关注信息传递和沟通渠道，以及更好地了解某些退伍军人人群的有效招募方法，使MVP不仅有机会改善女性退伍军人的健康和医疗服务，还能惠及更多人群。所吸取的经验教训将应用于增加MVP中的其他人群，如黑人、西班牙裔、亚洲人、美国原住民、年轻退伍军人以及患有某些健康状况的退伍军人。
