Exploring primary care physician biases in adolescent contraceptive counseling

While previous literature has shown clinician bias in adult contraceptive counseling, less is known on the biases clinicians may exhibit when counseling adolescents about contraception. Our study aimed to describe long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) counseling and prescribing practices of adolescent-serving clinicians.

This study used a cross-sectional discrete choice experiment mixed methods design. We sent a survey containing vignettes and items pertaining to demographics and beliefs to a convenience sample of adolescent-serving clinicians across the United States.

Of 296 clinicians, 80% were in pediatrics, and had geographic, practice setting, gender, and racial diversity. Most clinicians reported being up-to-date with current literature regarding contraception. Sixty-eight percent of respondent's practices administer contraceptive injections, but only 17% place intrauterine devices (IUDs). Of those who do insert IUDs, nearly half inserted five or fewer within the last year. Patients' younger age and Hispanic ethnicity were associated with lower odds, and history of pregnancy was associated with higher odds, of clinicians' recommending LARC. Across all vignettes, the top five reasons clinicians chose their first-choice method for the patient were adherence or compliance, efficacy, side effects, patient age, and reversibility.

Clinicians often recommend contraceptives based on adherence, efficacy, and age, and we found younger age, minoritized race or ethnicity, and history of pregnancy were all associated with LARC recommendations, indicating potential biases against teen parents and assumptions about adolescents' priorities. This may impede the provision of patient-centered contraceptive counseling for adolescents, and highlights the need for improved education and practice changes post-Dobbs.

We found that clinicians demonstrated several biases in how they provide contraceptive recommendations to adolescent patients. These biases were often associated with their personal beliefs and experiences. Our findings can guide the development of future interventions aimed at improving adolescent reproductive health counseling and care delivery in primary care settings.