A comparison of parent and adolescent responses from independent health histories

This study compared agreement of written responses between parent and adolescent concerning medical and psychosocial information from independent health histories during an initial medical visit. Records with two health histories completed separately by 268 parent/adolescent pairs were studied. The following medical questions were coded and compared: chief complaint, infectious diseases, review of systems, hospitalizations, accidents, allergies, and medications. Psychosocial questions included recreational drug use, sexual behavior, body image, home life, and mental health. Using three-factor repeated measures ANOVA, significant differences (P less than or equal to 0.05) were obtained for gender and age when comparing the mean scores for medical and psychosocial questions. These differences were found primarily in the psychosocial category and chief complaint question. Findings suggest that many adolescents are reliable informants about their medical histories, but private interviewing of the teenager may be necessary to determine high-risk behaviors.