Rurality and Atrial Fibrillation: Patient Perceptions of Barriers and Facilitators to Care.

ABSTRACT: Background Patients experience atrial fibrillation (AF) as a complex disease given its adversity, chronicity, and necessity for long-term treatments. Few studies have examined the experience of rural individuals with AF. We conducted qualitative assessments of patients with AF residing in rural, western Pennsylvania to identify barriers and facilitators to care. Methods and Results We conducted 8 semistructured virtual focus groups with 42 individuals living in rural western Pennsylvania using contextually tailored questions to assess participant perspectives. We inductively analyzed focus group transcripts using paragraph-by-paragraph and focused coding to identify themes with the qualitative description approach. We used Krippendorff α scoring to determine interreviewer reliability. We h

SUBMITTER: Mann HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10727401 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature