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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Tanisha Villegas Carino, BA, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 110 West 39th St #208, Baltimore, MD 21210, 4106629934, tcarino@jhsph.edu
Examination of health service use by at-risk youth has been limited by the lack of self-report data collected on both risk characteristics and medical care use. This research examines the preventive, illness, and mental health care utilization of youth reporting risk behaviors (tobacco, alcohol, and drug use) and risk states (depressive symptoms and histories of physical and sexual abuse) in a national sample of adolescents. A data source of in-school adolescents (n=6,728) grades 5th-12th was used to conduct bivariable and multivariable analyses to assess the independent association individual and combinations of risk characteristics on the relative risk of receiving a physical exam, using physician services, and visiting a mental health provider in the previous year. All multivariable analyses controlled for predisposing, enabling, and needs characteristics reported by the adolescent. This research demonstrates that adolescents with both individual and combinations of risk characteristics had as high as three times greater relative risks of being a high-user of physician services and visiting a mental health provider in the past year after controlling for known determinants of use. Current models of health care utilization fall short in fully recognizing the unique developmental needs of adolescents, specifically, the influential role of risk characteristics on the use of primary care and mental health services. The development of appropriate health systems for this population requires acknowledgement of adolescents' unique health care needs and the establishment of accessible and appropriate types of health services and confidential physician-patient interactions.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Adolescent Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.