Original articleForgone Health Care among U.S. Adolescents: Associations between Risk Characteristics and Confidentiality Concern
Section snippets
Study design
The study used Wave I home interview data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Details regarding the Add Health study design have been presented elsewhere [12]. In summary, a stratified random sample of 80 U.S. high schools was selected from a list of eligible high schools; high schools were stratified by factors including region, urbanicity, school size, school type, and race/ethnic composition. One feeder school for each high school was also randomly
Results
Descriptive statistics for the study sample are presented in Table 1. By construction of the sample, all subjects reported having forgone needed health care in the past year; 10.5% of boys and 14.3% of girls reported that this was due, in part or in whole, to confidentiality concern (Table 1). Girls were more likely than boys to report confidentiality concern as a reason for forgone health care (p < .01).
Discussion
This national study examined risk characteristics of adolescents for whom confidentiality concern prevented the seeking of health care. The study findings suggest that U.S. adolescents who forgo care due in whole or in part to confidentiality concern are a particularly high-risk population in need of health care services. Among boys, prevalence of mental health difficulties was significantly higher among those who cited confidentiality concern as a reason for forgone care, as compared with
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bureau of Maternal and Child Health – Leadership and Education in Adolescent Health Training. This research used data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Ph.D., Peter S. Bearman Ph.D., and Kathleen Mullan Harris, Ph.D., and funded by Grant P01-HD31921from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative
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