How do teenagers and primary healthcare providers view each other? An overview of key themes

Background Teenagers have often been asked for their opinions about health services. However, relatively few studies have involved quantitative and qu alitative methods of assessing them, Furthermore, there have been no United Kingdom studies of providers views on the health of teenagers or of provid ers' opinions about their role in teenage health, Aim. To determine how teenagers view primary care, to discover how primary care providers view teenage patients and to note any differences in opinion s between the two groups, Design of study. Questionnaire survey focus group discussions, and semi-str uctured interviews. Setting: Two thousand two hundred and sixty-five teenage patients, 16 gener al practitioners (GPs), 12 practice nurses, and 12 general practice recepti onists in South Wales valley communities. Method., Selected practices provided age-sex registers of patients aged bet ween 14 and 18 years and questionnaires were sent to these patients. Focus groups were assembled from those teenagers who had completed and returned t he questionnaire. Semi-structured interviews between one member of the stud y team and GP surgery staff, chosen randomly from staff lists in the select ed surgeries, Results., The teenagers reported a lack of knowledge of services available from primary care, a feeling of a lack of respect for teenage health concer ns, poor communication skills in GPs. and a poor understanding of confident iality issues. The providers did not always share these concerns and they a lso had differing views on communication and confidentiality issues. Conclusion., The data demonstrated important findings a out how teenagers w ould like ptimag care services to he improved There was an apparent guy bet ween teenagers' own opinions about health care and the opinions held by pri mary care providers.