Document 0631
 DOCN  M95A0631
 TI    Physician attitudes towards delivering STD/HIV-related preventive
       services to teens. American Pediatric Society 104th annual meeting and
       Society for Pediatric Research 63rd annual meeting; 1994 May 2-5;
       Seattle.
 DT    9510
 AU    Igra V; Millstein SG; Dept. of Peds., University of California, San
       Francisco, USA.
 SO    Pediatr AIDS HIV Infect. 1994 Oct;5(5):316 (unnumbered abstract). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE AIDS/95330413
 AB    Little is known about physicians' delivery of preventive services to
       adolescents. Given the significant morbidity associated with teen sexual
       behavior, STD/HIV-related preventive services are critical for this
       population. Yet research on physician attitudes towards providing these
       often controversial services is unavailable. We surveyed 75
       pediatricians, internists, family physicians and
       obstetrician-gynecologists to examine physicians' attitudes about three
       preventive services: 1) screening teens for sexual activity, 2)
       educating teens about STD/HIV transmission, and 3) providing condoms to
       sexually active teens. RESULTS: There was general consensus among
       physicians that providing these preventive services is beneficial in
       areas such as communication, teen health status and physician-patient
       relationships. In contrast, there was great diversity of opinion about
       the importance of reimbursement and time issues, and about levels of
       physician and patient discomfort in relation to these services. On
       average, physicians reported screening 74% of their teen patients for
       sexual activity, providing education for 61% and providing condoms for
       13% of their sexually active teen patients. Three-quarters of physicians
       never distributed condoms to their sexually active teen patients.
       Forty-three percent of the sample did not believe that adolescents would
       be truthful about their sexual activity status if asked. Significant (p
       < .05) correlates of providing education and condoms included beliefs
       that these services would have a positive effect on adolescents sexual
       behavior and health status. Perceptions that parents would be offended
       were associated with significantly lower rates of both screening and
       condom distribution. Feelings of personal discomfort with providing
       sexually-related services were associated with significantly lower rates
       of delivering all 3 services. Concerns about inadequate reimbursement
       were associated with lower rates of screening only. Although the small
       sample size does not allow for generalizability of preventive services
       prevalence rates, we would suspect that national rates are even lower
       than the rates reported here, since subjects who volunteered to take
       part in the study probably represent physicians who are above the norm
       in terms of their interest and activity in preventive services. The
       results also point to potentially important attitudinal dimensions that
       warrant future study in larger, more representative samples.
 DE    Adolescence  *Adolescent Medicine  *Attitude of Health Personnel
       Condoms  Health Education  Human  HIV Infections/*PREVENTION & CONTROL
       Physicians/*PSYCHOLOGY  Sex Behavior  Sexually Transmitted
       Diseases/*PREVENTION & CONTROL  MEETING ABSTRACT  JOURNAL ARTICLE

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