Part I: A Quantitative Study of Social Risk Screening Acceptability in Patients and Caregivers

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Experience
• Social Determinants of Health

Background:

• Healthcare delivery increasingly incorporates social risk screening to address patient needs beyond clinical care.
• However, patient and caregiver perspectives on these screening initiatives remain largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the acceptability of social risk screening among adult patients and caregivers of pediatric patients.
• To identify factors associated with patient and caregiver comfort and perceived appropriateness of social risk screening and data inclusion in electronic health records.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was administered to 969 adult patients and caregivers across 6 primary care clinics and 4 emergency departments in 9 states.
• The survey included the Accountable Health Communities' social risk screening tool and questions on appropriateness and comfort with electronic health record data integration.
• Logistic regression analyses examined associations between covariates and acceptability measures.

Main Results:

• 79% of participants found social risk screening appropriate, and 65% were comfortable with social risk data in electronic health records.
• Higher perceived appropriateness was linked to prior screening exposure, trust in clinicians, and primary care setting recruitment.
• Previous healthcare discrimination was associated with lower perceived appropriateness, while prior assistance with social risks correlated with greater comfort with EHR documentation.

Conclusions:

• A significant majority of patients and caregivers perceive social risk screening as appropriate and are comfortable with its integration into electronic health records.
• While several factors influence acceptability, their impact is generally moderate to small.
• Patient acceptability is unlikely to pose a significant barrier to implementing social risk screening initiatives in clinical settings.