Miscarriages during the pandemic: Relationships between social determinants of health and patient experience

Abstract

Title: Pandemic miscarriages: Social determinants of health and patient experiences

Background/Purpose: Miscarriage is considered the most common complication of pregnancy in the US, with 750,000-1,000,000 cases reported annually and 15-20% being clinically reported. Women suffering from a miscarriage are subjected to poor healthcare experiences that are exacerbated by their social determinants of health (SDOH) (Arpey & Rosenbaum, 2017). The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to examine the relationships between the SDOH and the patient experience of women in North Carolina who miscarried during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study examines demographics and the patient experience survey data collected in the mixed-methods parent study. Using SPSS-28, chi-square tests of independence and independent-sample t-tests were conducted to examine relationships between SDOH and the patient experience (good vs. poor).

Results: Over half of participants reported a poor patient experience. Those with higher levels of income and who are employed full time reported significantly better patient experiences. Age, education, insurance, residential area, marital status, and race/ethnicity were not found to be significantly different between women with good versus poor patient experiences.

Discussion: This study’s results indicate that there may be some implicit bias within healthcare providers interacting with low‐socioeconomic‐status patients. There is an existing evidenced-based relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and provider implicit bias. This relationship should be continually explored and effective interventions to reduce healthcare provider implicit biases should be developed.