Examining Unmet Needs in a Brain Injury Sample referred to RF: A Cross-Ethnic Comparison

Research

Objectives: To investigate differences of the perceived unmet needs in a post-acute brain injury sample when referred to Resource Facilitation (RF) among various race/ethnic groups.

Design: A retrospective chart review. Duration of followup = N/A
Setting: A clinical database serving chronic outpatients in the Midwest region.
Participants: The sample consisted of N = 455 subjects. Clinical disorders included ABI from either stroke, anoxic injury, ruptured aneurysm, or tumor resection surgery. Eligibility criteria included participants' admission into a RF program, a vocational goal, and a diagnosis of a moderate to severe TBI or other ABI. Key sociodemographic features included age, race, ethnicity, education, and sex.
Interventions: Interventions: N/A.
Main Outcome Measures: Service of Unmet Needs & Service Use (SUMSU)

Results: Due to the small sample size of Hispanics (N=7), African American and Hispanic groups were combined for a total minority sample (N=84). Significant differences were found between ethnic groups (white non-Hispanics and minority group) in terms of years of education (p= <.01). White non-Hispanics had higher education (M=13.39, SD=2.23), reported significantly more rural addresses (40.2%, p= <.01), and had private insurance coverage more frequently than the minority group (33.7%, p= <.01). The full model was statistically significant, R2=.077 = F(4,450) = 9.387, p<.0001; adjusted R2 = .069. The addition of ethnicity led to a statistically significant increase in R2 of .019, F(1,450) =9.025, p<.0005.

Conclusions: Ethnicity was found to be a predictive factor for greater unmet needs even after controlling for insurance, employment status, and urbanicity. It is currently unknown RF’s success rate in providing culturally competent services to different racial/ethnic groups, which consider factors such as primary language spoken, immigration status, degree, and additional ethnocultural factors that could deter accurate reporting of unmet needs by minoritized groups. Future studies should investigate barriers in referring and meeting eligibility for this program and analyzing post-treatment data to determine if the impact of racial, geographic, and insurance disparities is mitigated with RF treatment.
Author(s) Disclosures: Presenter: Kiriana Parker
Authors:
Dr. Patricia Garcia
Dr. Devan Parrott
Cori Conner
Kira Thomas
Ellie Kelleher
Stephanie Crockett