Improving young patient - practitioner communication about sexual health during medical visits

Young people face barriers that lead to gaps in sexual and reproductive health care communications. Issues such as discomfort discussing sexual health lead to inadequate delivery of services resulting in unintended pregnancies and STIs. Closing this communication gap between patients and health care practitioners would improve communication and health outcomes. The objective of this study was to gain feedback from focus groups about: (a) barriers and facilitators to communication surrounding sexual health and (b) the feasibility and acceptability of a question prompt list (QPL) and informational video emphasizing asking questions about sexual health during medical visits as tools young people could use to be more involved during visits.

Three focus groups were conducted: two with young adults (n=14) and one with practitioners (n=5) of sexual/reproductive health care services. Practitioners were recruited from healthcare clinics.

Young adults were aged 18-22 years old. Participants identified barriers to communication such as embarrassment over sexual health topics and practitioner assumptions about patients' base of knowledge. A facilitator to communication was patient-friendly language. Focus group participants offered suggestions on how to improve the QPL as well as themes that should be covered in an educational video. Participants viewed the QPL and educational video as useful for encouraging conversations between patient and practitioner.

Many barriers obstruct communication between young adults and practitioners on topics relating to sexual health. Both the QPL and an educational video could be used to enhance patient-practitioner communication.