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Gender Differences In Health Care

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Definitions Definitions relevant to this study include: • Gender Differences – the differences that exist between men and women regarding VA health services use • Inpatient – a patient formally admitted to a VAMC with a doctor’s order • Non-user – a veteran with a no inpatient admission at a VAMC • Retrospective Cohort Study – a research study, also known as a historic cohort, that uses medical records of groups of individuals who are similar but different by a certain characteristic (for example, veterans with AKI who are male or female) are compared to a particular outcome (such as health service use). • User – a veteran with a minimum of one inpatient admission at a VAMC • Utilization – defined as the inpatient services and treatment given …show more content…

My proposed research will add to this existing literature by providing information by gender on a narrow-focused clinical case definition, e.g., inpatient services utilization and acute kidney injury using a National VA sample. My proposed study is significant because, in it, I will attempt to identify gender disparities in health services use and short-term outcomes for a particular clinical condition. Examining gender disparities in health services use and outcomes can uncover who access care; the type of services used; at what frequency, and under what circumstances (Barton, 2010). This study will potentially contribute to positive social change by identifying gender disparities in health services use and also in patient care and access. The findings from this study can increase VA administrators and policymakers' knowledge of the significance of gender in VA health services use. This information can assist the VA administrators and policymakers to develop and implement policies, procedures, or universal standards of care across the VA hospitals nationally. The policies, procedures, or universal standards created can promote and provide equal access to health care services thus, leading to healthier outcomes and overall quality of life …show more content…

This chapter also provided the significance of kidney disease in the veteran population. Gender-related studies on some kidney disease (e.g., CKD and ESRD) in veterans exist, but these studies do not include AKI (Hsu, 2010). AKI is important because it leads to poor patient outcomes if it is not identified early or adequately treated (Lewington, Cerdá, & Mehta, 2013). VA researchers studying AKI have focused on these outcomes but have not explored how health services use differs by gender in veterans with AKI (Bydash & Ishani, 2011; Lafrance & Miller, 2010). This study is designed to focus on this research

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