Bridging the Gap From Postpartum to Primary Care

Chronic health conditions affect most older adults. Preventative medicine and risk management strategies, especially when applied earlier in life, are essential to altering the trajectory of a disease and ultimately improving health outcomes. Primary care providers (PCP) often provide most of these services, though younger adults are the least likely to receive primary care. This project leverages a period of high engagement and health activation during an individual's life (pregnancy) to nudge her toward use of primary care after the pregnancy episode. This randomized controlled trial will test the hypothesis that a behavioral science-informed intervention, incorporating defaults and salience, can increase the rates of PCP follow-up within 4 months following a delivery for individual with hypertension, diabetes, obesity. If successful, this intervention could serve as a scalable solution to increase primary care use and preventative health services in a population that currently has low rates of engagement and utilization of these services.

Individuals will be randomized with equal probability into either a treatment or control arm. The intervention combines several features designed to target reasons for low take-up of primary care among postpartum individuals. This project will leverage the potential value of defaults/opt-out, salient information, and reminders to encourage use of primary care. Individuals in both the intervention and control arms will receive information via the study institution's patient portal toward the end of the pregnancy regarding the importance and benefits of primary care in the postpartum year. This information will be similar to, but reinforcing, the information they would receive from their obstetrician about following up with their primary care physician. In addition to this initial message, individuals in the treatment arm will receive the following intervention components, developed based on recent evidence regarding behavioral science approaches to activating health behaviors: 1. Targeted messages about the importance and benefits of primary care 2. Default scheduling into a primary care appointment at approximately 3-4 months after delivery 3. Reminders about the appointment and importance of follow up primary care at 2-4 points during the postpartum period via the patient portal 4. Tailored language in the reminders based on recent evidence from behavioral science about the most effective approaches to increasing take-up. For example, messages will inform the patient that an appointment is being held for them at their doctor. 5. Salient labeling on follow-up appointments 6. Direct PCP messaging about the scheduled follow-up