The strange adolescent world that complicates general practitioner prevention: a qualitative study

Background Prevention is important in the international primary care system. In adolescents, several prevention areas need to be addressed: sexual health, mental health, substance use and addiction, physical activity, screen use, and social relationships... However, consultations with adolescents are complex, which puts health professionals in a difficult position. While there are professional recommendations in many countries, they focus on a single theme.

Aim To understand the preventive approaches taken by general practitioners (GPs) in consultation with adolescents.

Design & setting This preliminary qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with French GPs. Participants were recruited following direct requests and sampled using the snowball sampling method.

Method Analysis was conducted using grounded theory for the identification of conceptualizing categories.

Results Twelve interviews led to the emergence of four conceptualizing categories: 1) the characteristics of adolescents make the preventive approach complex and generate a fear of failure for GPs; 2) the world of adolescents is foreign to GPs, which hinders empathetic relationships and has a negative impact on prevention; 3) as individuals, GPs approached adolescent prevention during consultations based on their own experiences (parenthood, their own adolescence, professional practices) and interpersonal skills; and 4) GPs propose an optimized prevention approach for adolescents.

Conclusion GPs are opportunistic in terms of adolescent prevention: any occasion for consultation should be the object of a preventive action, whatever the initial motive. GPs require tools and consultations dedicated to prevention to optimize their approaches sometimes difficult. Further research about adolescents’ experiences should be manage to complete GPs practical proposals.