Document 0076
 DOCN  M9590076
 TI    Adolescents' perceptions of factors affecting their decisions to seek
       health care [see comments]
 DT    9509
 AU    Ginsburg KR; Slap GB; Cnaan A; Forke CM; Balsley CM; Rouselle DM;
       Craig-Dalsimer Program in Adolescent Medicine, Department of; Medicine,
       University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine,; Philadelphia, USA.
 SO    JAMA. 1995 Jun 28;273(24):1913-8. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/95302599
 CM    Comment in: JAMA 1995 Jun 28;273(24):1957-8
 AB    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.
 DE    Adolescence  Adolescent Health Services/*UTILIZATION  Adolescent
       Medicine/ORGANIZATION & ADMIN  Data Collection  Decision Making  Factor
       Analysis, Statistical  Female  Human  Male  Patient Acceptance of Health
       Care/*STATISTICS & NUMER DATA  Philadelphia
       Students/PSYCHOLOGY/STATISTICS & NUMER DATA  Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
       Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).