Physician Preferences for Universal Routine Depression Screening for Adolescents in Primary Care.

Area of Science:

• Adolescent health
• Primary care
• Mental health screening

Background:

• Universal adolescent depression screening is recommended in primary care.
• Optimal implementation strategies require understanding physician preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess primary care physicians' preferences for universal adolescent depression screening attributes.
• To inform the development of effective screening implementation strategies.

Main Methods:

• A discrete choice experiment survey was administered to US primary care physicians.
• Physician preferences for screening modality, location, completion time, missed cases, and exam time were evaluated.
• Conditional logit and latent class models were used for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Physicians prioritized minimizing missed depression cases (59.6% importance) and shortening clinical examination time (21.0% importance).
• Physicians were willing to extend examination time to improve diagnostic accuracy.
• Latent class analysis identified distinct physician subgroups based on screening priorities (accuracy, time, or screener type).

Conclusions:

• Primary care physicians value accuracy and efficiency in adolescent depression screening.
• Health systems should consider physician preferences for successful screening implementation.
• Further research is needed on family and staff preferences for integrated behavioral health care.