Encouraging adolescents to contact their GP: a community-based trial

Area of Science:

• Adolescent Health
• Primary Care Medicine
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Adolescents, particularly males, exhibit low rates of general practitioner (GP) visits.
• Improving healthcare accessibility for this demographic is a significant public health concern.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of an informative letter in enhancing healthcare facility and service accessibility and utilization among adolescents.
• To determine if targeted health information can improve GP contact rates in young males.

Main Methods:

• A community-based trial conducted in Oslo, Norway, utilizing a retrospective control group design.
• Personalized informative letters were sent to 16-year-olds, with data compared to retrospective controls from earlier years.
• International Classification of Primary Care-2 (ICPC-2) diagnoses were recorded for all patient contacts.

Main Results:

• The proportion of adolescents visiting a GP increased from 59% to 69% in the intervention group (P<0.001), with a notable rise from 54% to 72% for males (P<0.001).
• Healthcare seeking among males significantly improved, reducing sex-based disparities.
• Contact rates for conditions mentioned in the letter rose from 38% to 55% (P<0.001), while female contact rates showed a non-significant increase.

Conclusions:

• An informational letter detailing health issues and rights, including privacy, effectively enhances GP accessibility and utilization among adolescents.
• The intervention demonstrated a particular positive impact on healthcare seeking behavior in adolescent males.
• Common reasons for GP contact included respiratory, general, skin, musculoskeletal, and psychological disorders, a pattern unaffected by the intervention.