Abstract
Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of patients’ health that are conveyed directly by individual patients. These measures serve as instruments to evaluate the impact of interventions on any aspect of patients’ health, from specific symptoms to broader quality of life indicators. However, their effectiveness relies on capturing relevant factors accurately. Whereas they are commonly used in clinical trials, PROs extend their influence across health care settings, informing clinicians, health care payers, regulators, and administrators to guide quality improvement and reimbursement decisions. Neglecting health equity considerations in PRO development and implementation widens health disparities, leading to biased interpretations, medical mismanagement, and poor health outcomes among marginalized groups. To foster equitable health care, efforts must focus on considering the values of underrepresented populations in PRO design, addressing barriers to completion, enhancing representation in research, providing cultural competency training for clinicians, and allocating research funding to support health equity research. By addressing these issues, advances can be made toward fostering inclusive, equitable health care for all individuals.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2617-2624 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2024 |
Funding
The consequences of these inequities extend beyond the disease itself and adversely impact the US economy. One study funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities revealed that in 2018, racial and ethnic disparities cost the US economy $451 billion, $131 billion higher than the burden in 2014. 10 This economic burden included the cost of excess medical expenses, loss of productivity in the workforce among Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, Latino, and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander populations. Conflicts of interest: L.G. Ramirez is supported by Grant T32 HL007427 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute . M. Louisias is supported by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation Robert A. Winn Award and the Brigham and Women's Hospital Minority Faculty Career Development Award. R. Gupta receives research support from the NIH (R21 ID AI135705, R01 ID AI130348, and U01 ID AI138907), Food Allergy Research & Education, the Melchiorre Family Foundation, the Sunshine Charitable Foundation, the Walder Foundation, the UnitedHealth Group, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Novartis, and Genentech; she serves as a medical consultant/advisor for Genentech, Novartis, Aimmune LLC, Allergenis LLC, and Food Allergy Research & Education; and she has ownership interest in Yobee Care, Inc. A. Apter receives support from the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and is an associate editor of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. B.L. Jones receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and is a paid author for Merck Manual. P.U. Ogbogu receives research funding from GSK , AstraZeneca , Blueprint Medical, and DBV; she serves on the advisory board for AstraZeneca, Genentech, and Kalvista; and she is a consultant for AstraZeneca. S.M. Nyenhuis has been a consultant for GSK and Avillion; receives research funding from the NIH and the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America; and receives royalties from Wolters Kluwer and Springer. The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.
Keywords
- Allergy/immunology
- Health disparities
- Health equity
- Patient-reported outcomes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
