Adolescents' perceptions of factors affecting their decisions to seek health care.

Adolescents' perceptions of factors affecting their decisions to seek health care.

MedLine Citation:	PMID: 7783300 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE
Abstract/OtherAbstract:	OBJECTIVE: To have adolescents, rather than adults, identify characteristics of health care providers and sites that affect their decision to seek care. DESIGN: Five stages conducted over a 10-month period: (1) focus groups to frame the study questions; (2) nominal group technique to generate student responses; (3) three surveys to assess response importance; (4) one survey to link the most important responses with the decision to seek care; and (5) focus groups to explain the variables associated with the decision to seek care. SETTING: The Philadelphia (Pa) School District. PARTICIPANTS: The study population consisted of all ninth graders from 39 of Philadelphia's 42 public high schools. The 6821 students who returned the final survey comprised the study sample (69% of in-school youth). RESULTS: In the final survey, students used a Likert scale (1 to 5) to describe the impact of 31 ideas on their decision to seek care. The most important characteristics were provider hand washing, clean instruments, honesty, respect toward teens, cleanliness, know-how, carefulness, experience, seronegativity for the human immunodeficiency virus, equal treatment of all patients, and confidentiality. There was little variation in the order of the items by sex, race, or socioeconomic status. Factor analysis showed that the most important of four identified latent factors related to infection control and provider competency. CONCLUSION: Four of the top 10 characteristics that affect an adolescent's decision to seek care involve cleanliness and infection control. These findings offer providers and planners straightforward, modifiable factors that teens believe influence their decision to seek care.

Authors:	K R Ginsburg; G B Slap; A Cnaan; C M Forke; C M Balsley; D M Rouselle
Publication Detail:	Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal Detail:	Title: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Volume: 273 ISSN: 0098-7484 ISO Abbreviation: JAMA Publication Date: 1995 Jun
Date Detail:	Created Date: 1995-07-19 Completed Date: 1995-07-19 Revised Date: 2010-03-24
Medline Journal Info:	Nlm Unique ID: 7501160 Medline TA: JAMA Country: UNITED STATES
Other Details:	Languages: eng Pagination: 1913-8 Citation Subset: AIM; IM; X
Affiliation:	Craig-Dalsimer Program in Adolescent Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
Export Citation:	APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:	Adolescent Adolescent Health Services / utilization* Adolescent Medicine / organization & administration Data Collection Decision Making Factor Analysis, Statistical Female Humans Male Patient Acceptance of Health Care / statistics & numerical data* Philadelphia Students / psychology, statistics & numerical data
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:	1-R03-HS07876-01/HS/AHRQ HHS
Comments/Corrections
Comment In:	JAMA. 1995 Jun 28;273(24):1957-8 [PMID: 7783308 ]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine

Previous Document: Alexandre Yersin and the plague bacillus.
Next Document: The role of coronary angiography and coronary revascularization before noncardiac vascular surgery.