Comparison of Parent and Teen Reports of Teen Healthcare Use: United States, July 2021-December 2023

This report examines selected measures of healthcare use among teenagers ages 12-17 by parent- or self-report. Agreement between parent-reported and teen self-reported data is also evaluated.

The percentage of teenagers with doctor visits, wellness visits, having a usual place of care, having a personal doctor or nurse, and having time alone with a doctor were estimated using teen-reported data from the National Health Interview Survey-Teen collected from July 2021 through December 2023. These estimates were compared with parent-reported estimates from the same time period using data from the National Health Interview Survey. Cohen's kappa and prevalence-adjusted, bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) values were used to evaluate agreement between parent and teen responses.

Across all measures, parents reported higher healthcare use for their teenagers than teenagers reported for themselves (for example, 91.4% of parents reported a doctor's visit in the last 12 months compared with 83.0% of teenagers). Cohen's kappa values across measures showed fair to slight agreement, with PABAK values showing slightly higher agreement, ranging from slight to substantial. Percentage agreement patterns were most often driven by both parent and teenager affirming healthcare use indicators, except for having time alone with a doctor, which was driven slightly more by the parent and teenager both reporting the teenager had not received this service. Disagreement patterns were driven by parents affirming services the teenager did not; disagreement was highest for having a personal doctor or nurse and time alone with a doctor.