Client self-disclosure is a fundamental and critical process that must occur if counseling is to be successful. This study determined whether ethnic match and gender match affected various aspects of self-disclosure (disclosure of personal values/feelings, private habits, close relationships, and sexual issues) among Asian Americans in a counseling analogue situation. The study also examined whether individual differences in acculturation, cultural identity, and face concern were related to these four types of self-disclosure. Participants first completed the individual difference measures and then listened to an audio recording of a counselor describing himself/herself and what counseling entailed. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions in which they were either matched or not matched on gender and either matched or not matched on their specific Asian ethnicity (e.g., Chinese female listening to a Chinese male counselor constituted the gender mismatch and ethnic match condition). Gender match between participants and counselors facilitated self-disclosure about one's sex life. There were no ethnic match effects on the various types of self-disclosure. Face concern was a negative predictor of the self-disclosure of private habits, sex life, close relationships, and personal values/ feelings. Implications for counseling clients from shame-based cultures are discussed.
Introduction
Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) is an efficacious treatment of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). However, it is unknown whether PAP initiation is associated with reduced healthcare utilization, an important metric of care management. We hypothesized that healthcare utilization would be reduced after initiation of PAP in a cohort of pediatric patients prescribed PAP for OSAS.
Methods
Data were extracted from electronic medical records of 475 patients (Mean±SD age at PAP initiation=7.7±5.7 years; 58.7% male; 40.6% White; 38.3% Black; 18.1% multiracial/other; 12.1% Hispanic/Latinx) prescribed PAP for OSAS and followed in our Sleep Center quality improvement program. We extracted the total number of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations and computed the related average length of stay (LOS) in hours for these visits in the 18 months prior to and 18 months following PAP initiation.
Results
Paired samples t-tests showed that number of ED visits and hospitalizations, and the related visit LOS, were significantly reduced following PAP initiation. The average number of visits reduced from 2.20 pre-PAP to 1.77 post-PAP initiation [t(474) = 3.48, p<.001, effect size = 0.16], while average LOS reduced from 185.14 hours pre-PAP to 42.94 hours post-PAP initiation [t(474) = 4.81, p<.001, effect size = 0.29]. Findings for the significant reduction in LOS held after adjusting for the number of pre and post-PAP ED visits and hospitalizations, average pre-PAP LOS, and patient demographics (age at the time of initiation; sex; race/ethnicity) using multiple linear regression.
Conclusion
PAP initiation was associated with fewer and shorter ED visits and hospitalizations in a large sample of pediatric patients. We speculate that PAP initiation could help reduce morbidity associated with pediatric OSAS, as well as improve healthcare utilization, capacity management and care in this population.
Support
K23HD094905 and Sleep Research Foundation (AAW)
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