Features of sexually transmitted disease services important to African American adolescents

Objective: To determine the relative importance of various features of heal th clinics when African American adolescents consider seeking care for sexu ally transmitted diseases (STDs). Design: Confidential interviewer-administered telephone survey. Setting: A predominantly low-income, African American neighborhood in San F rancisco, Calif. Participants: Random sample of African American adolescents aged 12 to 17 y ears; 302 (76.6%) of 394 identified eligible adolescents participated. Main Outcome Measures: items and scales measuring adolescents' sense of the importance of the attributes of the provider (alpha = .58), availability o f services (alpha = .61), and perceived confidentiality of health services from family (alpha = .72) when deciding where to seek care for possible STD s. Results: More than 90% (90.4%) of subjects rated items relating to provider attributes as being highly important when they consider where they would s eek care for an STD; between 62.5% and 82.7% rated availability items as be ing highly important; and between 38.6% and 60.8% rated items pertaining to confidentiality as being highly important. Greater importance was placed o n provider attributes and confidentiality by female than male adolescents. The importance placed on provider attributes and confidentiality increased as adolescents aged. Conclusions: Low-income, African American adolescents place great importanc e on provider attributes, less importance on availability, and even less im portance on confidentiality when deciding where to seek health care for a p ossible STD. Health care providers and organizations need to be aware of th ese adolescent preferences to better promote screening and treatment of STD s in this population.